PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 
BY  ORISON  SWETT  MARDEN 


THE  MARDEN  BOOKS 

EFFICIENCY  BOOKS 

Keeping  Fit.  Net,  $1.25 

Selling  Things.  «     '  1.25 

Victorious  Attitude.  "       1.25 


The  Joys  of  Living. 
Training  for  Efficiency. 
Woman  and  the  Home. 
The  Exceptional  Employee. 
Making  Life  a  Masterpiece. 
The  Progressive  Business  Man. 


.25 
.25 
.26 
.00 
.25 
.00 


INSPIRATIONAL   BOOKS 
Getting  On.  Net,  $1.25 


Self-Investment, 
Every  Man  a  King. 
The  Optimistic  Life. 
Rising  in  the  World. 
Be  Good  to  Yourself. 
Pushing  to  the  Front. 


.25 
.25 
.25 
.25 
.26 
.26 


Peace,  Power,  and  Plenty.  "       1.25 

The  Secret  of  Achievement.  "       1.26 

He  Can  Who  Thinks  He  Can.  «       1.25 

The  Miracle  of  Right  Thought.  "        1.25 

The  Young  Man  Entering  Business.  "       1.25 

SUCCESS    BOOKLETS 

Per  volume,  Net,  50  cents. 

Character.  Good  Manners.  Opportunity. 

Cheerfulness.  Economy.  An  Iron  Will. 

Power  of  Personality. 

SPECIAL   BOOKLETS 

Success  Nuggets.  Net,  $  .60 

I  Had  a  Friend.  "         .60 

Hints  for  Young  Writers.  "         .50 


JJ ujrfftttg  to  %  Jfinwt 

OR 

SUCCESS  UNDER  DIFFICULTIES 

A  BOOK  OF  INSPIRATION    AND   ENCOURAGEMENT  TO  ALL 

WHO  ARE  STRUGGLING  FOR  SELF-ELEVATION 

ALONG  THE  PATHS  OF  KNOWLEDGE 

AND  OF  DUTY 


BY 

ORISON  SWETT  MARDEN 

Author  of 

**  Peace,  Power,  and  Plenty,"  "  Every  Man  a  King,"  etc. 
Editor  of  Success  Magaxint 


We  live  in  a  new  and  exceptional  age.  America 
is  another  name  for  Opportunity.  Our  whole 
history  appears  like  a  last  effort  of  the  Divine 
Providence  in  behalf  of  the  human  race. 

— EMERSON 


NEW  YORK 

THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


COPYRIGHT,  1894, 
Bl  ORISON  SWETT  MARDEN. 


PREFACE   TO  REVISED   EDITION 

)FTER  the  author  had  worked  for 
years  on  the  original  manu- 
script of  "Pushing  to  the 
Front"  it  was  entirely  destroyed 
by  fire;  and  it  was  with  great 
difficulty  that  he  reproduced  it, 
as  all  of  his  notes,  which  he  had 
been  collecting  for  many  years,  were  burned  also. 
As  he  had  never  before  written  anything  for  pub- 
lication, he  expected  that  the  rewritten  manuscript, 
sent  to  Messrs.  Houghton,  Mifflin  and  Company  of 
Boston,  would  be  declined,  but  they  promptly  ac- 
cepted it  and  published  twelve  editions  the  first 
year.  The  book  has  probably  gone  through  more 
than  one  hundred  editions  since. 

The  author  has  received  thousands  of  letters  from 
people  in  nearly  all  parts  of  the  world,  telling  how 
the  book  has  aroused  their  ambition,  changed  their 
ideals  and  aims,  increased  their  confidence,  and  how 
it  has  spurred  them  to  the  successful  undertaking  of 
what  they  before  had  thought  impossible. 

Many  of  these  letters  have  come  from  youths 
telling  how  it  has  encouraged  them  to  return  to 
school  or  college  after  having  given  up  in  despair; 
to  go  back  to  vocations  which  they  had  left  in  a 
moment  of  discouragement;  enheartened  to  take  up 
other  dropped  or  neglected  tasks  with  new  hope 
and  new  ambition;  and  how  the  book  has  proved 
a  turning  point  in  their  careers;  the  cause  of  their 
success. 

"Pushing  to  the  Front"  has  been  translated  into 
m'any  foreign  languages,  and  has  been  very  success- 
v 


35998<i 


vi    PREFACE   TO   REVISED  EDITION 

ful  abroad,  especially  in  Japan,  where  for  many 
years  it  has  been  used  extensively  in  the  govern- 
ment schools  in  a  great  variety  of  editions,  both  in 
Japanese  and  English. 

Distinguished  educators  in  many  parts  of  the 
world  have  recognized  the  arousing,  inspiring  qual- 
ities of  the  book,  and  in  numerous  instances  have 
recommended  its  use  in  the  public  schools  and  other 
educational  institutions.  The  state  superintendents 
of  public  instruction  in  a  number  of  states  in  this 
country  have  put  it  on  the  required  library  lists  for 
the  schools.  Alexander  Rossi,  a  noted  educator  of 
the  Italian  Parliament,  wrote  a  pamphlet  in  which 
he  strongly  recommended  that  the  reading  of 
"  Pushing  to  the  Front "  be  made  obligatory  in  the 
schools  of  Italy,  because  he  regarded  it  as  "a 
civilization-builder." 

Queen  Victoria  of  England  wrote  and  compli- 
mented the  author  on  this  book,  and  Mr.  Gladstone 
was  so  much  interested  in  it  that  he  was  about  to 
write  an  introduction  to  the  English  edition  when 
he  died. 

King  Humbert  of  Italy,  President  McKinley,  mem- 
bers of  the  U.  S.  Supreme  Court,  senators  and 
representatives,  distinguished  cabinet  officers,  gov- 
ernors of  states,  members  of  the  British  and  other 
parliaments,  noted  authors,  scholars,  and  many  other 
eminent  people  in  all  walks  of  life  from  nearly  every 
civilized  country  have  thanked  the  author  for  giving 
this  book  to  the  world. 

THE  PUBLISHERS. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  FIRST  EDITION 

|HE  author's  excuse  for  one 
more  postponement  of  the 
end  "of  making  many 
books  "  can  be  briefly  given. 
He  early  determined  that 
if  it  should  ever  lie  in  his 
power  he  would  write  a  book  to  encourage, 
inspire,  and  stimulate  boys  and  girls  who  long 
to  be  somebody  and  do  something  in  the 
world  but  feel  that  they  have  no  chance  in 
life.  Among  hundreds  of  American  and  Eng- 
lish books  for  the  young  claiming  to  give  the 
"  secret  of  success,"  he  found  but  few  which 
satisfy  the  cravings  of  youth,  hungry  for 
stories  of  successful  lives,  and  eager  for  every 
hint  and  every  bit  of  information  which  may 
help  them  to  make  their  way  in  the  world. 
He  believed  that  the  power  of  an  ideal  book 
for  youth  should  lie  in  its  richness  of  concrete 
examples,  as  the  basis  and  inspiration  of  char- 
acter-building;  in  its  uplifting,  energizing, 
suggestive  force,  rather  than  in  its  argu- 
ments; that  it  should  be  free  from  material- 
ism on  the  one  hand,  and  from  cant  on  the 
other;  and  that  it  should  abound  in  stirring 
examples  of  men  and  women  who  have 
vii 


viii     PREFACE  TO   FIRST   EDITION 

brought  things  to  pass.  To  the  preparation 
of  such  a  book  he  had  devoted  his  spare  mo- 
ments for  ten  years,  when  a  fire  destroyed  all 
his  manuscript  and  notes.  The  memory  of 
some  of  the  lost  illustrations  of  difficulties 
overcome  stimulated  him  to  another  attempt; 
so  once  more  the  gleanings  of  odd  bits  of 
time  for  years  have  been  arranged  in  the  fol- 
lowing pages. 

The  aim  has  been  to  spur. the  perplexed 
youth  to  act  the  Columbus  to  his  own  undis- 
covered possibilities ;  to  urge  him  not  to  brood 
over  the  past,  nor  dream  of  the  future,  but  to 
get  his  lesson  from  the  hour;  to  encourage 
him  to  make  every  occasion  a  great  occasion, 
for  he  can  not  tell  when  his  measure  may 
be  taken  for  a  higher  place ;  to  show  him  that 
he  must  not  wait  for  his  opportunity,  but  make 
it;  to  tell  the  round  boy  how  he  may  get  out 
of  the  square  hole  into  which  he  has  been 
wedged  by  circumstances  or  mistakes ;  to  help 
him  to  find  his  right  place  in  life;  to  teach 
the  hesitating  youth  that  in  a  land  where  shoe- 
makers and  farmers  sit  in  Congress  no  limit 
can  be  placed  to  the  career  of  a  determined 
youth  who  has  once  learned  the  alphabet. /The 
standard  of  the  book  is  not  measured  in  gold, 
but  in  growth ;  not  in  position,  but  in  personal 
power;  not  in  capital,  but  in  character.  It 


PREFACE   TO   FIRST   EDITION     ix 

shows  that  a  great  check-book  can  never 
make  a  great  man;  that  beside  the  character 
of  a  Washington,  the  millions  of  a  Croesus 
look  contemptible;  that  a  man  may  be  rich 
without  money,  and  may  succeed  though  he 
does  not  become  President  or  member  of  Con- 
gress; that  he  who  would  grasp  the  key  to 
power  must  be  greater  than  his  calling  and 
resist  the  vulgar  prosperity  that  retrogrades 
toward  barbarism;  that  there  is  something 
greater  than  wealth,  grander  than  fame;  that 
character  is  success,  and  there  is  no  other. 

If  this  volume  shall  open  wider  the  door  of 
some  narrow  life  and  awaken  powers  before 
unknown,  the  author  will  feel  amply  repaid 
for  his  labor.  No  special  originality  is  claimed 
for  the  book.  It  has  been  prepared  in  odd  mo- 
ments snatched  from  a  busy  life,  and  is  merely 
a  new  way  of  telling  stories  and  teaching  les- 
sons that  have  been  told  and  taught  by  many 
others  from  Solomon  down.  In  these  well- 
worn  and  trite  topics  lie  "  the  marrow  of  the 
wisdom  of  the  world." 

"Though  old  the  thought,  and  oft  expressed, 
Tis  his  at  last  who  says  it  best." 

The  author  wishes  to  acknowledge  valuable 
assistance  from  Mr.  Arthur  W.  Brown,  of 
West  Kingston,  R.  I, 


xii  CONTENTS 

PAGB 

CHAPTER   VI 

CONCENTRATED  ENERGY  121 

One  unwavering  aim.  Don't  dally  with 
your  purpose.  Not  many  things  indiffer- 
ently, but  one  thing  supremely. 

CHAPTER  VII 

ON    TIME,    OR    THE    TRIUMPH    OF    PROMPT- 
NESS 138 
Don't  brood  over  the  past  or  dream  of  the 
future;  but  seize  the  instant,  and  get  your 
lesson  from  the  hour. 

CHAPTER  VIII 

A  FORTUNE  IN  GOOD  MANNERS  154 

The  good-mannered  can  do  without  riches: 
all  doors  fly  open  to  them',  and  they  enter 
everywhere  without  money  and  without 
price. 

CHAPTER    IX 

THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  ENTHUSIASM  189 

"What  are  hardships,  ridicule,  persecution, 
toil,  sickness,  to  a  soul  throbbing  with  an 
overmastering  enthusiasm'?" 

CHAPTER  X 

TACT  OR  COMMON  SENSE  2IO 

Talent  is  no  match  for  tact;  we  see  its 
failure  everywhere.  In  the  race  of  life, 
common  sense  has  the  right  of  way. 


CONTENTS  xiii 

PAGB 

CHAPTER  XI 

SELF-RESPECT    AND    SELF-CONFIDENCE  230  X 

We  stamp  our  own  value  upon  ourselves, 
and  cannot  expect  to  pass  for  more. 

CHAPTER  XII 

CHARACTER  IS   POWER  238 

Beside  the  character  of  a  Washington  the 
millions  of  many  an  American  look  con- 
temptible. Character  is  success,  and  there 
is  no  other. 

CHAPTER  XIII 

ENAMORED  OF  ACCURACY  265 

Twenty  things  half  done  do  not  make  one 
thing  well  done.  There  is  a  great  differ- 
ence between  going  just  right  and  a  little 
wrong. 

CHAPTER   XIV 

THE  REWARD  OF   PERSISTENCE  28/ 

"  Mere  genius  darts,  nutters,  and  tires ;  but 
perseverance  wears  and  wins." 

CHAPTER  XV 

BE  BRIEF  309 

"  Brevity  is  the  soul  of  wit."   Boil  iti  down. 


I.   THE    MAN    AND    THE    OPPORTU- 
NITY 

No  man  is  born  into  this  world  whose  work  is 
not  born  with  him. — LOWELL. 

Things  don't  turn  up  in  this  world  until  some- 
body turns  them  up. — GARFIELD. 

Vigilance  in  watching  opportunity;  tact  and  dar- 
ing in  seizing  upon  opportunity;  force  and  persist- 
ence in  crowding  opportunity  to  its  utmost  of  pos- 
sible achievement — these  are  the  martial  virtues 
which  must  command  success. — AUSTIN  PHELPS. 

"  I  will  find  a  way  or  make  one." 

There  never  was  a  day  that  did  not  bring  its  own 
opportunity  for  doing  good  that  never  could  have 
been  done  before,  and  never  can  be  again. — W.  H. 
BURLEIGH. 

"Are  you  in  earnest?    Seize  this  very  minute; 
What  you  can  do,  or  dream  you  can,  begin  it" 

|F  we  succeed,  what  will  the 
world  say  ?  "  asked  Captain 
Berry  in  delight,  when  Nel- 
son had  explained  his  care- 
fully   formed    plan    before 
the  battle  of  the  Nile. 
"  There  is  no  */  in  the  case,"  replied  Nelson. 
"  That  we  shall  succeed  is  certain.    Who  may 
live  to  tell  the  tale  is  a  very  different  ques- 
tion,"   Then,  as  his  captains  rose  from  the 


2        PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

council  to  go  to  their  respective  ships,  he 
added :  "  Before  this  time  to-morrow  I  shall 
have  gained  a  peerage  or  Westminster 
Abbey."  His  quick  eye  and  daring  spirit  saw 
an  opportunity  of  glorious  victory  where 
others  saw  only  probable  defeat. 

"  Is  it  POSSIBLE  to  cross  the  path  ?  "  asked 
Napoleon  of  the  engineers  who  had  been  sent 
to  explore  the  dreaded  pass  of  St.  Bernard. 
"  Perhaps,"  was  the  hesitating  reply,  "  it  is 
within  the  limits  of  possibility."  "  FORWARD 
THEN/'  said  the  Little  Corporal,  without  heed- 
ing their  account  of  apparently  insurmount- 
able difficulties.  England  and  Austria  laughed 
in  scorn  at  the  idea  of  transporting  across  the 
Alps,  where  "  no  wheel  had  ever  rolled,  or 
by  any  possibility  could  roll,"  an  army  of  sixty 
thousand  men,  with  ponderous  artillery,  tons 
of  cannon  balls  and  baggage,  and  all  the 
bulky  munitions  of  war.  But  the  besieged 
Massena  was  starving  in  Genoa,  and  the  vic- 
torious Austrians  thundered  at  the  gates  of 
Nice,  and  Napoleon  was  not  the  man  to  fail 
his  former  comrades  in  their  hour  of  peril. 

When  this  "  impossible  "  deed  was  accom- 
plished, some  saw  that  it  might  have  been 
done  long  before.  Others  excused  themselves 
from  encountering  such  gigantic  obstacles  by 


MAN   AND  THE  OPPORTUNITY      3 

calling  them  insuperable.  Many  a  comman- 
der had  possessed  the  necessary  supplies, 
tools,  and  rugged  soldiers,  but  lacked  the  grit 
and  resolution  of  Bonaparte,  who  did  not 
shrink  from  mere  difficulties,  however  great, 
but  out  of  his  very  need  made  and  mastered 
his  opportunity. 

Grant  at  New  Orleans  had  just  been  seri- 
ously injured  by  a  fall  from  his  horse,  when 
he  received  orders  to  take  command  at  Chat- 
tanooga, so  sorely  beset  by  the  Confederates 
that  its  surrender  seemed  only  a  question  of  a 
few  days ;  for  the  hills  around  were  all  aglow 
by  night  with  the  camp-fires  of  the  enemy, 
and  supplies  had  been  cut  off.  Though  in 
great  pain,  he  immediately  gave  directions  for 
his  removal  to  the  new  scene  of  action. 

On  transports  up  the  Mississippi,  the  Ohio, 
and  one  of  its  tributaries ;  on  a  litter  borne  by 
horses  for  many  miles  through  the  wilder- 
ness ;  and  into  the  city  at  last  on  the  shoulders 
of  four  men,  he  was  taken  to  Chattanooga. 
Things  assumed  a  different  aspect  immedi- 
ately. A  master  had  arrived  who  was  equal 
to  the  situation.  The  army  felt  the  grip  of 
his  power.  Before  he  could  mount  his  horse 
he  ordered  an  advance,  and  although  the 
enemy  contested  the  ground  inch  by  inch,  the 


4        PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

surrounding  hills  were  soon  held  by  Union 
soldiers. 

Were  these  things  the  result  of  chance,  or 
were  they  compelled  by  the  indomitable  de- 
termination of  the  injured  General? 

Did  things  adjust  themselves  when  Hora- 
tius  with  two  companions  held  ninety  thou- 
sand Tuscans  at  bay  until  the  bridge  across 
the  Tiber  had  been  destroyed? — when  Leon- 
idas  at  Thermopylae  checked  the  mighty 
march  of  Xerxes? — when  Themistocles,  off 
the  coast  of  Greece,  shattered  the  Persian's 
Armada? — when  Caesar,  finding  his  army  hard 
pressed,  seized  spear  and  buckler,  fought 
while  he  reorganized  his  men,  and  snatched 
victory  from  defeat  ?  —  when  Winkelried 
gathered  to  his  breast  a  sheaf  of  Austrian 
spears,  thus  opening  a  path  through  which 
his  comrades  pressed  to  freedom? — when 
for  years  Napoleon  did  not  lose  a  single 
battle  in  which  he  was  personally  en- 
gaged?— when  Wellington  fought  in  many 
climes  without  ever  being  conquered? — when 
'  Ney,  on  a  hundred  fields,  changed  apparent 
disaster  into  brilliant  triumph? — when  Perry 
left  the  disabled  Lawrence,  rowed  to  the  Ni- 
agara, and  silenced  the  British  guns? — when 
Sheridan  arrived  from  Winchester  just  as  the 


MAN   AND  THE  OPPORTUNITY      5 

Union  retreat  was  becoming  a  rout,  and 
turned  the  tide  by  riding  along  the  line? — • 
when  Sherman,  though  sorely  pressed,  sig- 
naled his  men  to  hold  the  fort,  and  they,  know- 
ing that  their  leader  was  coming,  held  it? 

History  furnishes  thousands  of  examples 
of  men  who  have  seized  occasions  to  accom- 
plish results  deemed  impossible  by  those  less 
resolute.  Prompt  decision  and  whole-souled 
action  sweep  the  world  before  them. 

True,  there  has  been  but  one  Napoleon; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Alps  that  oppose 
the  progress  of  the  average  American  youth 
are  not  as  high  or  dangerous  as  the  summits 
crossed  by  the  great  Corsican. 

Don't  wait  for  extraordinary  opportunities. 
Seise  common  occasions  and  make  them  great. 

On  the  morning  of  September  6,  1838,  a 
young  woman  in  the  Longstone  Lighthouse, 
between  England  and  Scotland,  was  awakened 
by  shrieks  of  agony  rising  above  the  roar  of 
wind  and  wave.  A  storm  of  unwonted  fury 
was  raging,  and  her  parents  could  not  hear 
the  cries ;  but  a  telescope  showed  nine  human 
beings  clinging  to  the  windlass  of  a  wrecked 
vessel  whose  bow  was  hanging  on  the  rocks 
half  a  mile  away.  "  We  can  do  nothing,"  said 
William  Darling,  the  light-keeper.  "  Ah,  yes, 


6        PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

we  must  go  to  the  rescue,"  exclaimed  his 
daughter,  pleading  tearfully  with  both  father 
and  mother,  until  the  former  replied:  "Very 
well,  Grace,  I  will  let  you  persuade  me, 
though  it  is  against  my  better  judgment." 
Like  a  feather  in  a  whirlwind  the  little  boat 
was  tossed  on  the  tumultuous  sea,  but,  borne 
on  the  blast  that  swept  the  cruel  surge,  the 
shrieks  of  those  shipwrecked  sailors  seemed 
to  change  her  weak  sinews  into  cords  of  steel. 
Strength  hitherto  unsuspected  came  from 
somewhere,  and  the  heroic  girl  pulled  one 
oar  in  even  time  with  her  father.  At  length 
the  nine  were  safely  on  board.  "  God  bless 
you;  but  ye're  a  bonny  English  lass,"  said 
one  poor  fellow,  as  he  looked  wonderingly 
upon  this  marvelous  girl,  who  that  day  had 
done  a  deed  which  added  more  to  England's 
glory  than  the  exploits  of  many  of  her  mon- 
archs. 

"  If  you  will  let  me  try,  I  think  I  can  make 
something  that  will  do,"  said  a  boy  who  had 
been  employed  as  a  scullion  at  the  mansion  of 
Signor  Faliero,  as  the  story  is  told  by  George 
Gary  Eggleston.  A  large  company  had  been 
invited  to  a  banquet,  and  just  before  the 
hour  the  confectioner,  who  had  been  making  a 
large  ornament  for  the  table,  sent  word  that 


MAN   AND   THE   OPPORTUNITY      7 

he  had  spoiled  the  piece.  "  You !  "  exclaimed 
the  head  servant,  in  astonishment ;  "  and  who 
are  you  ?  "  "I  am  Antonio  Canova,  the  grand- 
son of  Pisano,  the  stone-cutter,"  replied  the 
pale-faced  little  fellow. 

"  And,  pray,  what  can  you  do  ? "  asked  the 
major-domo.  "  I  can  make  you  something 
that  will  do  for  the  middle  of  the  table,  if 
you'll  let  me  try."  The  servant  was  at  his 
wits'  end,  so  he  told  Antonio  to  go  ahead 
and  see  what  he  could  do.  Calling  for  some 
butter,  the  scullion  quickly  molded  a  large 
crouching  lion,  which  the  admiring  major- 
domo  placed  upon  the  table. 

Dinner  was  announced,  and  many  of  the 
most  noted  merchants,  princes,  and  noblemen 
of  Venice  were  ushered  into  the  dining-room. 
Among  them  were  skilled  critics  of  art  work. 
When  their  eyes  fell  upon  the  butter  lion, 
they  forgot  the  purpose  for  which  they  had 
come  in  their  wonder  at  such  a  work  of 
genius.  They  looked  at  the  lion  long  and 
carefully,  .and  asked  Signor  Faliero  what 
great  sculptor  had  been  persuaded  to  waste 
his  skill  upon  such  a  temporary  material. 
Faliero  could  not  tell ;  so  he  asked  the  head 
servant,  who  brought  Antonio  before  the 
company. 


8        PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

When  the  distinguished  guests  learned 
that  the  lion  had  been  made  in  a  short  time 
by  a  scullion,  the  dinner  was  turned  into  a 
feast  in  his  honor.  The  rich  host  declared 
that  he  would  pay  the  boy's  expenses  under 
the  best  masters,  and  he  kept  his  word. 
Antonio  was  not  spoiled  by  his  good  for- 
tune, but  remained  at  heart  the  same  simple, 
earnest,  faithful  boy  who  had  tried  so  hard 
to  become  a  good  stone-cutter  in  the  shop  of 
Pisano.  Some  may  not  have  heard  how  the 
boy  Antonio  took  advantage  of  this  first 
great  opportunity;  but  all  know  of  Canova, 
one  of  the  greatest  sculptors  of  all  time. 

Weak  men  wait  for  opportunities,  strong 
men  make  them. 

"  The  best  men,"  says  E.  H.  Chapin,  "  are 
not  those  who  have  waited  for  chances  but 
who  have  taken  them;  besieged  the  chance; 
conquered  the  chance;  and  made  chance  the 
servitor." 

There  may  not  be  one  chance  in  a  million 
that  you  will  ever  receive  unusual  aid;  but 
opportunities  are  often  presented  which  you 
can  improve  to  good  advantage,  if  you  will 
only  act. 

The  lack  of  opportunity  is  ever  the  excuse 
of  a  weak,  vacillating  mind.  Opportunities! 


MAN   AND  THE  OPPORTUNITY      9 

Every  life  is  full  of  them.  Every  lesson  in 
school  or  college  is  an  opportunity.  Every 
examination  is  a  chance  in  life.  Every  pa- 
tient is  an  opportunity.  Every  newspaper 
article  is  an  opportunity.  Every  client  is  an 
opportunity.  Every  sermon  is  an  opportu- 
nity. Every  business  transaction  is  an  op- 
portunity,— an  opportunity  to  be  polite, — an 
Opportunity  to  be  nianjy,. — an  opportunity  to 
be  honest, — an  opportunity  to  make  friends. 
Every  proof  of  confidence  in  you  is  a  great 
opportunity.  Every  responsibility  thrust  upon 
your  strength  and  your  honor  is  priceless. 
Existence  is  the  privilege  of  effort,  and  when 
that  privilege  is  met  like  a  man,  opportunities 
to  succeed  along  the  line  of  your  aptitude 
will  come  faster  than  you  can  use  them.  If  a 
slave  like  Fred  Douglass,  who  did  not  even 
own  his  body,  can  elevate  himself  into  an 
orator,  editor,  statesman,  what  ought  the  poor- 
est white  boy  to  do,  who  is  rich  in  opportuni- 
ties compared  with  Douglass  ? 

It  is  the  idle  man,  not  the  great  worker, 
•who  is  always  complaining  that  he  has  no 
time  or  opportunity.  Some  young  men  will 
make  more  out  of  the  odds  and  ends  of  op- 
portunities which  many  carelessly  throw 
away  than  others  will  get  out  of  a  whole  life- 


io      PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

time.  Like  bees,  they  extract  honey  from 
every  flower.  Every  person  they  meet,  every 
circumstance  of  the  day,  adds  something 
to  their  store  of  useful  knowledge  or  per- 
sonal power. 

"  There  is  nobody  whom  Fortune  does  not 
visit  once  in  his  life,"  says  a  cardinal;  "but 
when  she  finds  he  is  not  ready  to  receive  her, 
she  goes  in  at  the  door  and  out  at  the  win- 
dow." 

Cornelius  Vanderbilt  saw  his  opportunity 
in  the  steamboat,  and  determined  to  identify 
himself  with  steam  navigation.  To  the  sur- 
prise of  all  his  friends,  he  abandoned  his 
prosperous  business  and  took  command  of  one 
of  the  first  steamboats  launched,  at  a  salary  of 
one  thousand  dollars  a  year.  Livingston  and 
Fulton  had  acquired  the  sole  right  to  navi- 
gate New  York  waters  by  steam,  but  Van- 
derbilt thought  the  law  unconstitutional,  and 
defied  it  until  it  was  repealed.  He  soon  be- 
came a  steamboat  owner.  When  the  govern- 
ment was  paying  a  large  subsidy  for  carrying 
the  European  mails,  he  offered  to  carry  them 
free  and  give  better  service.  His  offer  was 
accepted,  and  in  this  way  he  soon  built  up 
an  enormous  freight  cind  passenger  traffic. 

Foreseeing  the  great  future  of  railroads  in 


MAN   AND  THE   OPPORTUNITY       n 

a  country  like  ours,  he  plunged  into  railroad 
enterprises  with  all  his  might,  laying  the 
foundation  for  the  vast  Vanderbilt  system  of 
to-day. 

Young  Philip  Armour  joined  the  long 
caravan  of  Forty-Niners,  and  crossed  the 
"  Great  American  Desert "  with  all  his  pos- 
sessions in  a  prairie  schooner  drawn  by 
mules.  Hard  work  and  steady  gains  care- 
fully saved  in  the  mines  enabled  him  to 
start,  six  years  later,  in  the  grain  ana  ware- 
house business  in  Milwaukee.  In  nine  years 
he  made  five  hundred  thousand  dollars.  But 
he  saw  his  great  opportunity  in  Grant's  or< 
der,  "  On  to  Richmond."  One  morning  in 
1864  he  knocked  at  the  door  of  Plankinton, 
partner  in  his  venture  as  a  pork  packer.  "  I 
am  going  to  take  the  next  train  to  New 
York,"  said  he,  "  to  sell  pork  '  short/  Grant 
and  Sherman  have  the  rebellion  by  the  throat, 
and  pork  will  go  down  to  twelve  dollars  a 
barrel."  This  was  his  opportunity.  He  went 
to  New  York  and  offered  pork  in  large  quan- 
tities at  forty  dollars  per  barrel.  It  was 
eagerly  taken.  The  shrewd  Wall  Street 
speculators  laughed  at  the  young  Westerner, 
and  told  him  pork  would  go  to  sixty  dollars, 
for  the  war  was  not  nearly  over,  Mr.  Ar- 


12       PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

mour,  however,  kept  on  selling.  Grant  con- 
tinued to  advance.  Richmond  fell,  pork  fell 
with  it  to  twelve  dollars  a  barrel,  and  Mr. 
Armour  cleared  two  millions  of  dollars. 

John  D.  Rockefeller  saw  his  opportunity 
in  petroleum.  He  could  see  a  large  popula- 
tion in  this  country  with  very  poor  lights.  Pe- 
troleum was  plentiful,  but  the  refining  proc- 
ess was  so  crude  that  the  product  was  infe- 
rior, and  not  wholly  safe.  Here  was  Rockefel- 
ler's chance.  Taking  into  partnership  Samuel 
Andrews,  the  porter  in  a  machine  shop  where 
both  men  had  worked,  he  started  a  single 
barrel  "still"  in  1870,  using  an  improved 
process  discovered  by  his  partner.  They  made 
a  superior  grade  of  oil  and  prospered  rap- 
idly. They  admitted  a  third  partner,  Mr. 
Flagler,  but  Andrews  soon  became  dissatis- 
fied. "  What  will  you  take  for  your  interest  ?  " 
asked  Rockefeller.  Andrews  wrote  care- 
lessly on  a  piece  of  paper,  "  One  million  dol- 
lars." Within  twenty-four  hours  Mr.  Rocke- 
feller handed  him  the  amount,  saying, 
"  Cheaper  at  one  million  than  ten."  In 
twenty  years  the  business  of  the  little  refin- 
ery, scarcely  worth  one  thousand  dollars  for 
building  and  apparatus,  had  grown  into  the 
Standard  Oil  Trust,  capitalized  at  ninety 


MAN   AND  THE  OPPORTUNITY      13 

millions  of  dollars,  with  stock  quoted  at  170, 
giving  a  market  value  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  millions. 

These  are  illustrations  of  seizing  opportu- 
nity for  the  purpose  of  making  money.  But 
fortunately  there  is  a  new  generation  of  elec- 
tricians, of  engineers,  of  scholars,  of  artists, 
of  authors,  and  of  poets,  who  find  opportu- 
nities, thick  as  thistles,  for  doing  something 
nobler  than  merely  amassing  riches.  Wealth 
is  not  an  end  to  strive  for,  but  an  opportu- 
nity; not  the  climax  of  a  man's  career,  but 
an  incident. 

Mrs.  Elizabeth  Fry,  a  Quaker  lady,  saw 
her  opportunity  in  the  prisons  of  England. 
From  three  hundred  to  four  hundred  half- 
naked  women,  as  late  as  1813,  would  often 
be  huddled  in  a  single  ward  of  Newgate, 
London,  awaiting  trial.  They  had  neither 
beds  nor  bedding,  but  women,  old  and  young, 
and  little  girls,  slept  in  filth  and  rags  on  the 
floor.  No  one  seemed  to  care  for  them,  and 
the  Government  merely  furnished  food  to 
keep  them  alive.  Mrs.  Fry  visited  Newgate, 
calmed  the  howling  mob,  and  told  them  she 
wished  to  establish  a  school  for  the  young 
women  and  the  girls,  and  asked  them  to  se- 
lect a  schoolmistress  from  their  own  number. 


14       PUSHING  TO   THE   FRONT 

They  were  amazed,  but  chose  a  young  woman 
who  had  been  committed  for  stealing  a 
watch.  In  three  months  these  "  wild  beasts," 
as  they  were  sometimes  called,  became  harm- 
less and  kind.  The  reform  spread  until  the 
Government  legalized  the  system,  and  good 
women  throughout  Great  Britain  became  in- 
terested in  the  work  of  educating  and  cloth- 
ing these  outcasts.  Fourscore  years  have 
passed,  and  her  plan  has  been  adopted  through- 
out the  civilized  world. 

A  boy  in  England  had  been  run  over  by 
a  car,  and  the  bright  blood  spurted  from  a 
severed  artery.  No  one  seemed  to  know 
what  to  do  until  another  boy,  Astley  Cooper, 
took  his  handkerchief  and  stopped  the  bleed- 
ing by  pressure  above  the  wound.  The 
praise  which  he  received  for  thus  saving 
the  boy's  life  encouraged  him  to  become  a 
surgeon,  the  foremost  of  his  day. 

"  The  time  comes  to  the  young  surgeon," 
says  Arnold,  "  when,  after  long  waiting,  and 
patient  study  and  experiment,  he  is  suddenly 
confronted  with  his  first  critical  operation. 
The  great  surgeon  is  away.  Time  is  press- 
ing. Life  and  death  hang  in  the  balance.  Is 
he  equal  to  the  emergency?  Can  he  fill  the 
great  surgeon's  place,  and  do  his  work?  If 


MAN   AND  THE  OPPORTUNITY      15 

he  can,  he  is  the  one  of  all  others  who  is 
wanted.  His  opportunity  confronts  him.  He 
and  it  are  face  to  face.  Shall  he  confess  his 
ignorance  and  inability,  or  step  into  fame  and 
fortune?  It  is  for  him  to  say." 

Are  you  prepared  for  a  great  opportunity? 

"  Hawthorne  dined  one  day  with  Long- 
fellow," said  James  T.  Fields,  "  and  brought 
a  friend  with  him  from  Salem.  After  dinner 
the  friend  said,  '  I  have  been  trying  to  per- 
suade Hawthorne  to  write  a  story  based 
upon  a  legend  of  Acadia,  and  still  current 
there, — the  legend  of  a  girl  who,  in  the  dis- 
persion of  the  Acadians,  was  separated  from 
her  lover,  and  passed  her  life  in  waiting  and 
seeking  for  him,  and  only  found '  him  dying 
in  a  hospital  when  both  were  old/  Long- 
fellow wondered  that  the  legend  did  not 
strike  the  fancy  of  Hawthorne,  and  he  said 
to  him,  *  If  you  have  really  made  up  your 
mind  not  to  use  it  for  a  story,  will  you  let 
me  have  it  for  a  poem  ? '  To  this  Hawthorne 
consented,  and  promised,  moreover,  not  to 
treat  the  subject  in  prose  till  Longfellow  had 
seen  what  he  could  do  with  it  in  verse. 
Longfellow  seized  his  opportunity  and  gave 
to  the  world  '  Evangeline,  or  the  Exile  of 
the  Acadians/" 


16      PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

Open  eyes  will  discover  opportunities 
everywhere;  open  ears  will  never  fail  to 
detect  the  cries  of  those  who  are  perishing 
for  assistance;  open  hearts  will  never  want 
for  worthy  objects  upon  which  to  bestow 
their  gifts;  open  hands  will  never  lack  for 
noble  work  to  do. 

Everybody  had  noticed  the  overflow  when 
a  solid  is  immersed  in  a  vessel  filled  with 
water,  although  no  one  had  made  use  of  his 
knowledge  that  the  body  displaces  its  exact 
bulk  of  liquid;  but  when  Archimedes  ob- 
served the  fact,  he  perceived  therein  an  easy 
method  of  finding  the  cubical  contents  of  ob- 
jects, however  irregular  in  shape. 

Everybody  knew  how  steadily  a  suspended 
weight,  when  moved,  sways  back  and  forth 
until  friction  and  the  resistance  of  the  air 
bring  it  to  rest,  yet  no  one  considered  this 
information  of  the  slightest  practical  impor- 
tance; but  the  boy  Galileo,  as  he  watched  a 
lamp  left  swinging  by  accident  in  the  cathe- 
'dral  at  Pisa,  saw  in  the  regularity  of  those 
oscillations  the  useful  principle  of  the  pen- 
dulum. Even  the  iron  doors  of  a  prison  were 
not  enough  to  shut  him  out  from  research. 
'  He  experimented  with  the  straw  of  his 
cell,  and  learned  valuable  lessons  about  the 


MAN   AND  THE  OPPORTUNITY       17 

relative  strength  of  tubes  and  rods  of  equal 
diameters. 

For  ages  astronomers  had  been  familiar 
with  the  rings  of  Saturn,  and  regarded  them 
merely  as  curious  exceptions  to  the  supposed 
law  of  planetary  formation;  but  Laplace  saw 
that,  instead  of  being  exceptions,  they  are 
the  sole  remaining  visible  evidences  of  cer- 
tain stages  in  the  invariable  process  of  star 
manufacture,  and  from  their  mute  testimony 
he  added  a  valuable  chapter  to  the  scientific 
history  of  Creation. 

There  was  not  a  sailor  in  Europe  who  had 
not  wondered  what  might  lie  beyond  the 
Western  Ocean,  but  it  remained  for  Colum- 
bus to  steer  boldly  out  into  an  unknown  sea 
and  discover  a  new  world. 

Innumerable  apples  had  fallen  from  trees, 
often  hitting  heedless  men  on  the  head  as  if 
to  set  them  thinking,  but  Newton  was  the  first 
to  realize  that  they  fall  to  the  earth  by  the 
same  law  which  holds  the  planets  in  their 
Courses  and  prevents  the  momentum  of  all 
the  atoms  in  the  universe  from  hurling  them 
wildly  back  to  chaos. 

Lightning  had  dazzled  the  eyes,  and  thun- 
der had  jarred  the  ears  of  men  since  the 
days  of  Adam,  in  the  vain  attempt  to  call 


y 


i8       PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

their  attention  to  the  all-pervading  and  tre- 
mendous energy  of  electricity;  but  the  dis- 
charges of  Heaven's  artillery  were  seen  and 
heard  only  by  the  eye  and  ear  of  terror  until 
Franklin,  by  a  simple  experiment,  proved 
that  lightning  is  but  one  manifestation  of  a 
resistless  yet  controllable  force,  abundant  as 
air  and  water. 

Like  many  others,  these  men  are  consid- 
ered great,  simply  because  they  improved 
opportunities  common  to  the  whole  human 
race.  Read  the  story  of  any  successful  man 
and  mark  its  moral,  told  thousands  of  years 
ago  by  Solomon :  "  Seest  thou  a  man  dili- 
gent in  his  business?  he  shall  stand  before 
kings."  This  proverb  is  well  illustrated  by 
the  career  of  the  industrious  Franklin,  for 
he  stood  before  five  kings  and  dined  with 
two. 

He  who  improves  an  opportunity  sows  a 
seed  which  will  yield  fruit  in  opportunity  for 
himself  and  others.  Every  one  who  has  la- 
bored honestly  in  the  past  has  aided  to  place 
knowledge  and  comfort  within  the  reach  of 
a  constantly  increasing  number. 

Avenues  greater  in  number,  wider  in  ex- 
tent, easier  of  access  than  ever  before  existed, 
stand  open  to  the  sober,  frugal,  energetic  and 


MAN   AND  THE  OPPORTUNITY      19 

able  mechanic,  to  the  educated  youth,  to  the 
office  boy  and  to  the  clerk — avenues  through 
which  they  can  reap  greater  successes  than 
ever  before  within  the  reach  of  these  classes 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  A  little 
while  ago  there  were  only  three  or  four  pro- 
fessions— now  there  are  fifty.  And  of  trades, 
where  there  was  one,  there  are  a  hundred 
now. 

"  What  is  its  name  ?  "  asked  a  visitor  in  a 
studio,  when  shown,  among  many  gods,  one 
whose  face  was  concealed  by  hair,  and  which 
had  wings  on  its  feet.  "  Opportunity,"  re- 
plied the  sculptor.  "  Why  is  its  face  hid- 
den ? "  "  Because  men  seldom  know  him 
when  he  comes  to  them."  "  Why  has  he 
wings  on  his  feet  ?  "  "  Because  he  is  soon 
gone,  and  once  gone,  cannot  be  overtaken." 

"  Opportunity  has  hair  in  front,"  says  a 
Latin  author;  "behind  she  is  bald;  if  you 
seize  her  by  the  forelock,  you  may  hold  her, 
but,  if  suffered  to  escape,  not  Jupiter  himself 
can  catch  her  again." 

But  what  is  the  best  opportunity  to  him 
who  cannot  or  will  not  use  it? 

"  It  was  my  lot,"  said  a  shipmaster,  "  to 
fall  in  with  the  ill-fated  steamer  Central 
America.  The  night  was  closing  in,  the  sea 


20      PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

rolling  high;  but  I  hailed  the  crippled 
steamer  and  asked  if  they  needed  help.  ' 1 
am  in  a  sinking  condition/  cried  Captain 
Herndon.  '  Had  you  not  better  send  your 
passengers  on  board  directly  ? '  I  asked. 
'  Will  you  not  lay  by  me  until  morning  ? '  re- 
plied Captain  Herndon.  *  I  will  try/  I  an- 
swered, '  but  had  you  not  better  send  your 
passengers  on  board  now? '  *  Lay  by  me 
till  morning/  again  shouted  Captain  Hern- 
don. 

"  I  tried  to  lay  by  him,  but  at  night,  such 
was  the  heavy  roll  of  the  sea,  I  could  not 
keep  my  position,  and  I  never  saw  the 
steamer  again.  In  an  hour  and  a  half  after 
he  said,  'Lay  by  me  till  morning/  his  vessel, 
with  its  living  freight,  went  down.  The  cap- 
tain and  crew  and  most  of  the  passengers 
found  a  grave  in  the  deep." 

Captain  Herndon  appreciated  the  valu^of 
the  opportunity  he  had  neglected  when  it  was 
beyond  his  reach,  but  of  what  avail  was  the 
bitterness  of  his  self-reproach  when  his  last 
moments  came?  How  many  lives  were  sac- 
rificed to  his  unintelligent  hopefulness  and 
indecision !  Like  him  the  feeble,  the  slug- 
gish, and  the  purposeless  too  often  see  no 
meaning  in  the  happiest  occasions,  until  too 


MAN   AND  THE  OPPORTUNITY      21 

late  they  learn  the  old  lesson  that  the  mil! 
can  never  grind  with  the  water  which  has 
passed. 

Such  people  are  always  a  little  too  late  or 
a  little  too  early  in  everything  they  attempt. 
"  They  have  three  hands  apiece,"  said  John 
B.  Gough ;  "  a  right  hand,  a  left  hand,  and  a 
little  behindhand."  As  boys,  they  were  late 
for  school,  and  unpunctual  in  their  home 
duties.  That  is  the  way  the  habit  is  acquired ; 
and  now,  when  responsibility  claims  them, 
they  think  that  if  they  had  only  gone  yester- 
day they  would  have  obtained  the  situation, 
or  they  can  probably  get  one  to-morrow. 
They  remember  plenty  of  chances  to  make 
money,  or  know  how  to  make  it  some  other 
time  than  now;  they  see  how  to  improve 
themselves  or  help  others  in  the  future,  but 
perceive  no  opportunity  in  the  present.  They 
caanot  seize  their  opportunity. 

Joe  Stoker,  rear  brakeman  on  the  • 

accommodation  train,  was  exceedingly  pop- 
ular with  all  the  railroad  men.  The  passen- 
gers liked  him,  too,  for  he  was  eager  to 
please  and  always  ready  to  answer  questions. 
But  he  did  not  realize  the  full  responsibility 
of  his  position.  He  "  took  the  world  easy," 
and  occasionally  tippled;  and  if  any  one 


22      PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

remonstrated,  he  would  give  one  of  his 
brightest  smiles,  and  reply,  in  such  a  good- 
natured  way  that  the  friend  would  think  he 
had  overestimated  the  danger :  "  Thank  you. 
I'm  all  right.  Don't  you  worry." 

One  evening  there  was  a  heavy  snowstorm, 
and  his  train  was  delayed.  Joe  complained 
of  extra  duties  because  of  the  storm,  and 
slyly  sipped  occasional  draughts  from  a  flat 
bottle.  Soon  he  became  quite  jolly;  but  the 
conductor  and  engineer  of  the  train  were 
both  vigilant  and  anxious. 

Between  two  stations  the  train  came  to  a 
quick  halt.  The  engine  had  blown  out  its 
cylinder  head,  and  an  express  was  due  in  a 
few  minutes  upon  the  same  track.  The  con- 
jductor  hurried  to  the  rear  car,  and  ordered 
Joe  back  with  a  red  light.  The  brakeman 
laughed  and  said: 

"There's  no  hurry.  Wait  till  I  get  my 
overcoat." 

The  conductor  answered  gravely,  "  Don't 
stop  a  minute,  Joe.  The  express  is  due." 

"All  right,"  said  Joe,  smilingly.  The  con- 
ductor then  hurried  forward  to  the  engine. 

But  the  brakeman  did  not  go  at  once.  He 
stopped  to  put  on  his  overcoat.  Then  he 
took  another  sip  from  the  flat  bottle  to  keep 


MAN    AND  THE   OPPORTUNITY      23 

the  cold  out.  Then  he  slowly  grasped  the 
lantern  and,  whistling,  moved  leisurely  down 
the  track. 

He  had  not  gone  ten  paces  before  he  heard 
the  puffing  of  the  express.  Then  he  ran  for 
the  curve,  but  it  was  too  late.  In  a  horrible 
minute  the  engine  of  the  express  had  tele- 
scoped the  standing  train,  and  the  shrieks  of 
the  mangled  passengers  mingled  with  the 
hissing  escape  of  steam. 

Later  on,  when  they  asked  for  Joe,  he  had 
disappeared;  but  the  next  day  he  was  found 
in  a  barn,  delirious,  swinging  an  empty  lan- 
tern in  front  of  an  imaginary  train,  and  cry- 
ing, "  Oh,  that  I  had !  " 

He  was  taken  home,  and  afterward  to  an 
asylum,  and  there  is  no  sadder  sound  in  that 
sad  place  than  the  unceasing  moan,  "  Oh, 
that  I  had !  Oh,  that  I  had ! "  of  the  unfor- 
tunate brakeman,  whose  criminal  indulgence 
brought  disaster  to  many  lives. 

"Oh,  that  I  had!"  or  "Oh,  that  I  had 
not ! "  is  the  silent  cry  of  many  a  man  who 
would  give  life  itself  for  the  opportunity  to 
go  back  and  retrieve  some  long-past  error. 

"  There  are  moments,"  says  Dean  Alford, 
"which  are  worth  more  than  years.  We 
cannot  help  it.  There  is  no  proportion  be- 


24       PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

tween  spaces  of  time  in  importance  nor  in 
value.  A  stray,  unthought-of  five  minutes 
may  contain  the  event  of  a  life.  And  this 
all-important  moment — who  can  tell  when  it 
will  be  upon  us  ?  " 

"  What  we  call  a  turning-point,"  says  Ar- 
nold, "  is  simply  an  occasion  which  sums  up 
and  brings  to  a  result  previous  training.  Ac- 
cidental circumstances  are  nothing  except  to 
men  who  have  been  trained  to  take  advan- 
tage of  them." 

The  trouble  with  us  is  that  we  are  ever 
looking  for  a  princely  chance  of  acquiring 
riches,  or  fame,  or  worth.  We  are  dazzled 
by  what  Emerson  calls  the  "  shallow  Amer- 
icanism" of  the  day.  We  are  "expecting 
mastery  without  apprenticeship,  knowledge 
without  study,  and  riches  by  credit. 

Young  men  and  women,  why  stand  ye  here 
all  the  day  idle?  Was  the  land  all  occupied 
before  you  were  born  ?  Has  the  earth  ceased 
to  yield  its  increase?  Are  the  seats  all 
taken?  the  positions  all  filled?  the  chances 
all  gone?  Are  the  resources  of  your  coun- 
try fully  developed?  Are  the  secrets  of  na- 
ture all  mastered?  Is  there  no  way  in  which 
you  can  utilize  these  passing  moments  to  im- 
prove yourself  or  benefit  others?  Is  the 


MAN  AND  THE  OPPORTUNITY      25 

competition  of  modern  existence  so  fierce 
that  you  must  be  content  simply  to  gain  an 
honest  living?  Have  you  received  the  gift 
of  life  in  this  progressive  age,  wherein  all 
the  experience  of  the  past  is  garnered  for 
your  inspiration,  merely  that  you  may  in- 
crease by  one  the  sum  total  of  purely  animal 
existence  ? 

Born  in  an  age  and  country  in  which 
knowledge  and  opportunity  abound  as  never 
before,  how  can  you  sit  with  folded  hands, 
asking  God's  aid  in  work  for  which  He  has 
already  given  you  the  necessary  faculties  and 
strength?  Even  when  the  Chosen  People 
supposed  their  progress  checked  by  the  Red 
Sea,  and  their  leader  paused  for  Divine  help, 
the  Lord  said,  "  Wherefore  criest  thou  unto 
me?  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  that 
they  go  forward." 

With  the  world  full  of  work  that  needs  to 
be  done;  with  human  nature  so  constituted  , 
that  often  a  pleasant  word  or  a  trifling  as- 
sistance may  stem  the  tide  of  disaster  for 
some  fellow  man,  or  clear  his  path  to  suc- 
cess; with  our  own  faculties  so  arranged  that 
in  honest,  earnest,  persistent  endeavor  we 
find  our  highest  good;  and  with  countless 
noble  examples  to  encourage  us  to  dare  and 


26      PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

to  do,  each  moment  brings  us  to  the  thresh- 
old of  some  new  opportunity. 

Don't  wait  for  your  opportunity.  Make  it, 
— make  it  as  the  shepherd-boy  Ferguson 
made  his  when  he  calculated  the  distances 
of  the  stars  with  a  handful  of  glass  beads  on 
a  string.  Make  it  as  George  Stephenson 
made  his  when  he  mastered  the  rules  of 
mathematics  with  a  bit  of  chalk  on  the  grimy 
sides  of  the  coal  wagons  in  the  mines.  Make 
it,  as  Napoleon  made  his  in  a  hundred  "  im- 
possible "  situations.  Make  it,  as  all  leaders 
of  men,  in  war  and  in  peace,  have  made  their 
chances  of  success.  Golden  opportunities  are 
nothing  to  laziness,  but  industry  makes  the 
commonest  chances  golden. 

"There  is  a  tide  in  the  affairs  of  men, 
Which,  taken  at  the  flood,  leads  on  to  fortune; 

Omitted,  all  the  voyage  of  their  life 
Is  bound  in  shallows  and  in  miseries; 

And  we  must  take  the  current  when  it  serves, 
Or  lose  our  ventures." 

*'Tis  never  offered  twice;   seize,  then,  the     houi 
When  fortune  smiles,  and  duty  points  the  way; 
Nor  shrink  aside  to  'scape  the  specter  fear, 
Nor    pause,    though    pleasure    beckon    from    her 

bower ; 
But  bravely  bear  thee  onward  to  the  goal." 


II.   BOYS   WITH   NO   CHANCE 

In  the  blackest  soils  grow  the  fairest  flowers,  and 
the  loftiest  and  strongest  trees  spring  heavenward 
among  the  rocks. — J.  G.  HOLLAND. 

Poverty  is  very  terrible,  and  sometimes  kills  the 
very  soul  within  us,  but  it  is  the  north  wind  that 
lashes  men  into  Vikings;  it  is  the  soft,  luscious 
south  wind  which  lulls  them  to  lotus  dreams. — 
OUIDA. 

Poverty  is  the  sixth  sense. — GERMAN  PROVERB. 

It  is  not  every  calamity  that  is  a  curse,  and  early 
adversity  is  often  a  blessing.  Surmounted  difficul- 
ties not  only  teach,  but  hearten  us  in  our  future 
struggles. — SHARPE. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  captains  of  in- 
dustry to-day,  using  that  term  in  its  broadest  sense, 
are  men  who  began  life  as  poor  boys. — SETH  Low. 

'Tis  a  common  proof, 
That  lowliness  is  young  ambition's  ladder! 

SHAKESPEARE. 

|AM  a   child  of   the  court/' 
said   a   pretty  little   girl   at 
a  children's   party  in   Den- 
mark ;    " my    father    is 
Groom    of    the    Chambers, 
which  is  a  very  high  office. 
And   those   whose   names   end   with   '  sen/ " 
she  added,  "  can  never  be   anything  at   all. 
We  must  put  our  arms  akimbo,  and  make  the 
27 


28       PUSHING  TO   THE   FRONT 

elbows  quite  pointed,  so  as  to  keep  these 
'sen*  people  at  a  great  distance." 

"  But  my  papa  can  buy  a  hundred  dollars' 
worth  of  bonbons,  and  give  them  away  to 
children,"  angrily  exclaimed  the  daughter  of 
the  rich  merchant  Peteraw.  "  Can  your  papa 
do  that?" 

"Yes,"  chimed  in  the  daughter  of  an 
editor,  "  my  papa  can  put  your  papa  and 
everybody's  papa  into  the  newspaper.  All 
sorts  of  people  are  afraid  of  him,  my  papa 
says,  for  he  can  do  as  he  likes  with  the 
paper." 

"  Oh,  if  I  could  be  one  of  them ! "  thought 
a  little  boy  peeping  through  the  crack  of  the 
door,  by  permission  of  the  cook  for  whom 
he  had  been  turning  the  spit.  But  no,  his 
parents  had  not  even  a  penny  to  spare,  and 
his  name  ended  in  "  sen." 

Years  afterwards,  when  the  children  of 
the  party  had  become  men  and  women,  some 
of  them  went  to  see  a  splendid  house,  filled 
with  all  kinds  of  beautiful  and  valuable  ob- 
jects. There  they  met  the  owner,  once  the 
very  boy  who  thought  it  so  great  a  privilege 
to  peep  at  them  through  a  crack  in  the  door 
as  they  played.  He  had  become  the  great 
sculptor  Thorwald^^n, 


BOYS   WITH   NO   CHANCE       29 

This  sketch  is  adapted  from  a  story  by  a 
poor  Danish  cobbler's  son,  another  whose 
name  did  not  keep  him  from  becoming  famous, 
— Hans  Christian  Ander^w. 

"  There  is  no  fear  of  my  starving,  father/' 
said  the  deaf  boy,  Kitto,  begging  to  be  taken 
from  the  poorhouse  and  allowed  to  struggle 
for  an  education ;  "  we  are  in  the  midst  of 
plenty,  and  I  know  how  to  prevent  hunger. 
The  Hottentots  subsist  a  long  time  on  noth- 
ing but  a  little  gum ;  they  also,  when  hungry, 
tie  a  ligature  around  their  bodies.  Cannot  I 
do  so,  too?  The  hedges  furnish  blackberries 
and  nuts,  and  the  fields,  turnips;  a  hayrick 
will  make  an  excellent  bed." 

This  poor  deaf  boy  with  a  drunken  father, 
who  was  thought  capable  of  nothing  better 
than  making  shoes  as  a  pauper,  became  one 
of  the  greatest  Biblical  scholars  in  the  world. 
His  first  book  was  written  in  the  workhouse. 

Creon  was  a  Greek  slave,  as  a  writer  tells 
the  story  in  Kate  Field's  "  Washington,"  but 
he  was  also  a  slave  of  the  Genius  of  Art. 
Beauty  was  his  god,  and  he  worshiped  it  with 
rapt  adoration.  It  was  after  the  repulse  of 
the  great  Persian  invader,  and  a  law  was  in 
force  that  under  penalty  of  death  no  one 
should  espouse  art  except  freemen.  When 


30       PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

the  law  was  enacted  he  was  engaged  upon 
a  group  for  which  he  hoped  some  day  to 
receive  the  commendation  of  Phidias,  the 
greatest  sculptor  living,  and  even  the  praise 
of  Pericles. 

What  was  to  be  done?  Into  the  marble 
block  before  him  Creon  had  put  his  head, 
his  heart,  his  soul,  his  life.  On  his  knees, 
from  day  to  day,  he  had  prayed  for  fresh 
inspiration,  new  skill.  He  believed,  grate- 
fully and  proudly,  that  Apollo,  answering  his 
prayers,  had  directed  his  hand  and  had 
breathed  into  the  figures  the  life  that  seemed 
to  animate  them;  but  now, — now,  all  the 
gods  seemed  to  have  deserted  him. 

Cleone,  his  devoted  sister,  felt  the  blow  as 
deeply  as  her  brother.  "  O  Aphrodite !  "  she 
prayed,  "  immortal  Aphrodite,  high  enthroned 
child  of  Zeus,  my  queen,  my  goddess,  my 
patron,  at  whose  shrine  I  have  daily  laid  my 
offerings,  to  be  now  my  friend,  the  friend 
of  my  brother !  " 

Then  to  her  brother  she  said :  "  O  Creon, 
go  to  the  cellar  beneath  our  house.  It  is 
dark,  but  I  will  furnish  light  and  food.  Con- 
tinue your  work;  the  gods  will  befriend  us." 

To  the  cellar  Creon  went,  and  guarded 
and  attended  by  his  sister,  day  and  night,  he 


BOYS   WITH  NO  CHANCE       31 

proceeded  with  his  glorious  but  dangerous 
task. 

About  this  time  all  Greece  was  invited  to 
Athens  to  behold  an  exhibit  of  works  of  art. 
The  display  took  place  in  the  Agora.  Peri- 
cles presided.  At  his  side  was  Aspasia. 
Phidias,  Socrates,  Sophocles,  and  other  re- 
nowned men  stood  near  him. 

The  works  of  the  great  masters  were  there. 
But  one  group,  far  more  beautiful  than  the 
rest, — a  group  that  Apollo  himself  must  have 
chiseled, — challenged  universal  attention,  ex- 
citing at  the  same  time  no  little  envy  among 
rival  artists. 

"Who  is  the  sculptor  of  this  group?" 
None  could  tell.  Heralds  repeated  the  ques- 
tion, but  there  was  no  answer.  "A  mystery, 
then !  Can  it  be  the  work  of  a  slave  ?  "  Amid 
great  commotion  a  beautiful  maiden  with 
disarranged  dress,  disheveled  hair,  a  deter- 
mined expression  in  her  eyes,  and  with 
closed  lips,  was  dragged  into  the  Agora. 
"  This  woman,"  cried  the  officers,  "  this 
woman  knows  the  sculptor;  we  are  sure  of 
it ;  but  she  will  not  tell  his  name." 

Cleone  was  questioned,  but  was  silent.  She 
was  informed  of  the  penalty  of  her  conduct, 
but  her  lips  remained  closed.  "  Then,"  said 


32       PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

Pericles,  "  the  law  is  imperative,  and  I  am 
the  minister  of  the  law.  Take  the  maid  to 
the  dungeon." 

As  he  spoke,  a  youth  with  flowing  hair, 
emaciated,  but  with  black  eyes  that  beamed 
with  the  flashing  light  of  genius,  rushed  for- 
ward, and  flinging  himself  before  him, 
exclaimed :  "  O  Pericles,  forgive  and  save 
the  maid!  She  is  my  sister.  I  am  the  cul- 
prit. The  group  is  the  work  of  my  hands, 
the  hands  of  a  slave." 

The  indignant  crowd  interrupted  him  and 
cried,  "  To  the  dungeon,  to  the  dungeon  with 
the  slave."  "As  I  live,  no!"  said  Pericles, 
rising.  "  Behold  that  group !  Apollo  decides 
by  it  that  there  is  something  higher  in  Greece 
than  an  unjust  law.  The  highest  purpose  of 
law  should  be  the  development  of  the  beau- 
tiful.  If  Athens  lives  in  the  memory  and 
affections  of  men,  it  is  her  devotion  to  art 
that  will  immortalize  her.  Not  to  the  dun- 
geon, but  to  my  side  bring  the  youth." 

And  there,  in  the  presence  of  the  assem- 
bled multitude,  Aspasia  placed  the  crown  of 
olives,  which  she  held  in  her  hands,  on  the 
brow  of  Creon;  and  at  the  same  time,  amid 
universal  plaudits,  she  tenderly  kissed  Cre- 
on's  affectionate  and  devoted  sister. 


BOYS   WITH   NO  CHANCE       33 

The  Athenians  erected  a  statue  to  ^Esop, 
who  was  born  a  slave,  that  men  might  know 
that  the  way  to  honor  is  open  to  all.  In 
Greece,  wealth  and'  immortality  were  the 
sure  reward  of  the  man  who  could  distin- 
guish himself  in  art,  literature,  or  war.  No 
other  country  ever  did  so  much  to  encourage 
and  inspire  struggling  merit. 

"  I  was  born  in  poverty,"  said  Vice- 
President  Henry  Wilson.  "  Want  sat  by  my 
cradle.  I  know  what  it  is  to  ask  a  mother 
for  bread  when  she  has  none  to  give.  I  left 
my  home  at  ten  years  of  age,  and  served  an 
apprenticeship  of  eleven  years,  receiving  a 
month's  schooling  each  year,  and,  at  the  end 
of  eleven  years  of  hard  work,  a  yoke  of  oxen 
and  six  sheep,  which  brought  me  eighty-four 
dollars.  I  never  spent  the  sum  of  one  dollar 
for  pleasure,  counting  every  penny  from  the 
time  I  was  born  till  I  was  twenty-one  years 
of  age.  I  know  what  it  is  to  travel  weary 
miles  and  ask  my  fellow  men  to  give  me 
leave  to  toil.  ...  In  the  first  month  after 
I  was  twenty-one  years  of  age,  I  went  into 
the  woods,  drove  a  team,  and  cut  mill-logs. 
I  rose  in  the  morning  before  daylight  and 
worked  hard  till  after  dark,  and  received  the 
magnificent  sum  of  six  dollars  for  the  month's 


34      PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

work!  Each  of  these  dollars  looked  as  large 
to  me  as  the  moon  looks  to-night." 

Mr.  Wilson  determined  never  to  lose  an 
opportunity  for  self-culture  or  self-advance- 
ment. Few  men  knew  so  well  the  value  of 
spare  moments.  He  seized  them  as  though 
they  were  gold  and  would  not  let  one  pass 
until  he  had  wrung  from  it  every  possibility. 
He  managed  to  read  a  thousand  good  books 
before  he  was  twenty-one — what  a  lesson  for 
boys  on  a  farm!  When  he  left  the  farm  he 
started  on  foot  for  Natick,  Mass.,  over  one 
hundred  miles  distant,  to  learn  the  cobbler's 
trade.  He  went  through  Boston  that  he 
might  see  Bunker  Hill  monument  and  other 
historical  landmarks.  The  whole  trip  cost 
him  but  one  dollar  and  six  cents.  In  a  year 
he  was  at  the  head  of  a  debating  club  at 
Natick.  Before  eight  years  had  passed,  he 
made  his  great  speech  against  slavery,  in  the 
Massachusetts  Legislature.  Twelve  years 
later  he  stood  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the 
polished  Sumner  in  Congress.  With  him, 
every  occasion  was  a  great  occasion.  He 
ground  every  circumstance  of  his  life  into 
material  for  success. 

"  Don't  go  about  the  town  any  longer  in 
that  outlandish  rig.  Let  me  give  you  an 


BOYS   WITH  NO  CHANCE       35 

order  on  the  store.  Dress  up  a  little,  Hor- 
ace/' Horace  Greeley  looked  down  on  his 
clothes  as  if  he  had  never  before  noticed  how 
seedy  they  were,  and  replied :  "  You  see, 
Mr.  Sterrett,  my  father  is  on  a  new  place, 
and  I  want  to  help  him  all  I  can."  He  had 
spent  but  six  dollars  for  personal  expenses  in 
seven  months,  and  was  to  receive  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty-five  from  Judge  J.  M.  Ster- 
rett of  the  Erie  "Gazette"  for  substitute 
work.  He  retained  but  fifteen  dollars  and 
gav?  the  rest  to  his  father,  with  whom  he 
had  moved  from  Vermont  to  Western  Penn- 
sylvania, and  for  whom  he  had  camped  out 
many  a  night  to  guard  the  sheep  from  wolves. 
He  was  nearly  twenty-one ;  and,  although  tall 
and  gawky,  with  tow-colored  hair,  a  pale 
face  and  whining  voice,  he  resolved  to  seek 
his  fortune  in  New  York  City.  Slinging  his 
bundle  of  clothes  on  a  stick  over  his  shoul- 
der, he  walked  sixty  miles  through  the  woods 
to  Buffalo,  rode  on  a  canal  boat  to  Albany, 
descended  the  Hudson  in  a  barge,  and 
reached  Njew  York,  just  as  the  sun  was  ris- 
ing, August  1 8,  1831. 

He  found  board  over  a  saloon  at  two  dol- 
lars and  a  half  a  week.  His  journey  of  six 
hundred  miles  had  cost  him  but  five  dollars. 


36      PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

For  days  Horace  wandered  up  and  down  the 
streets,  going  into  scores  of  buildings  and 
asking  if  they  wanted  "a  hand";  but  "no" 
was  the  invariable  reply.  His  quaint  appear- 
ance led  many  to  think  he  was  an  escaped 
apprentice.  One  Sunday  at  his  boarding- 
place  he  heard  that  printers  were  wanted  at 
"West's  Printing-office."  He  was  at  the 
door  at  five  o'clock  Monday  morning,  and 
asked  the  foreman  for  a  job  at  seven.  The 
latter  had  no  idea  that  the  country  green- 
horn could  set  type  for  the  Polyglot  Testa- 
ment on  which  help  was  needed,  but  said: 
"  Fix  up  a  case  for  him  and  we'll  see  if  he 
can  do  anything."  When  the  proprietor 
came  in,  he  objected  to  the  new-comer  and 
told  the  foreman  to  let  him  go  when  his  first 
day's  work  was  done.  That  night  Horace 
showed  a  proof  of  the  largest  and  most  cor- 
rect day's  work  that  had  then  been  done. 

In  ten  years  he  was  a  partner  in  a  small 
printing-office.  He  founded  the  "  New 
Yorker,"  the  best  weekly  paper  in  the 
United  States,  but  it  was  not  profitable. 
When  Harrison  was  nominated  for  Presi- 
dent in  1840,  Greeley  started  "The  Log- 
Cabin,"  which  reached  the  then  fabulous  cir- 
culation of  ninety  thousand.  But  on  this  paper 


BOYS   WITH   NO  CHANCE       37 

at  a  penny  per  copy,  he  made  no  money.  His 
next  venture  was  "  The  New  York  Tribune," 
price  one  cent.  To  start  it  he  borrowed  a 
thousand  dollars  and  printed  five  thousand 
copies  of  the  first  number.  It  was  difficult  to 
give  them  all  away.  He  began  with  six  hun- 
dred subscribers,  and  increased  the  list  to 
eleven  thousand  in  six  weeks.  The  demand 
for  the  "  Tribune "  grew  faster  than  new 
machinery  could  be  obtained  to  print  it.  It 
was  a  paper  whose  editor,  whatever  his  mis- 
takes, always  tried  to  be  right. 

James  Gordon  Bennett  had  made  a  failure 
of  his  "  New  York  Courier  "  in  1825,  of  the 
"Globe"  in  1832,  and  of  the  "  Pennsylva- 
nian  "  a  little  later,  and  was  only  known  as  a 
clever  writer  for  the  press,  who  had  saved  a 
few  hundred  dollars  by  hard  labor  and  strict 
economy  for  fourteen  years.  In  1835  ne  asked 
Horace  Greeley  to  join  him  in  starting  a  new 
daily  paper,  the  "  New  York  Herald."  Gree- 
ley declined,  but  recommended  two  young 
printers,  who  formed  a  partnership  with  Ben- 
nett, and  the  "  Herald "  was  started  on  May 
6,  1835,  with  a  cash  capital  to  pay  expenses 
for  ten  days.  Bennett  hired  a  small  cellar  in 
Wall  Street,  furnished  it  with  a  chair  and  a 
desk  composed  of  a  plank  supported  by  two 


3$       PUSHING  tO  THE  FRONT 

barrels ;  and  there,  doing  all  the  work  except 
the  printing,  began  the  work  of  making  a  really 
great  daily  newspaper,  a  thing  then  unknown 
in  America,  as  all  its  predecessors  were  party 
organs.  Steadily  the  young  man  struggled 
towards  his  ideal,  giving  the  news,  fresh  and 
crisp,  from  an  ever-widening  area,  until  his 
paper  was  famous  for  giving  the  current  his- 
tory of  the  world  as  fully  and  quickly  as  any 
competitor,  and  often  much  more  thoroughly 
and  far  more  promptly.  Neither  labor  nor 
expense  was  spared  in  obtaining  prompt  and 
reliable  information  on  every  topic  of  gen- 
eral interest.  It  was  an  up-hill  job,  but  its 
completion  was  finally  marked  by  the  open- 
ing at  the  corner  of  Broadway  and  Ann 
Street  of  the  most  complete  newspaper  estab- 
lishment then  known. 

One  of  the  first  things  to  attract  the  at- 
tention on  entering  George  W.  Childs'  pri- 
vate office  in  Philadelphia  was  this  motto, 
which  was  the  key-note  of  the  success  of  a 
boy  who  started  with  "  no  chance  " :  "  Nihil 
sine  labore."  It  was  his  early  ambition-  to 
own  the  "  Philadelphia  Ledger "  and  the 
great  building  in  which  it  was  published; 
but  how  could  a  poor  boy  working  for  $2.00 


BOYS    WITH    NO   CHANCE       39 

a  week  ever  hope  to  own  such  a  great  paper? 
However,  he  had  great  determination  and 
indomitable  energy ;  and  as  soon  as  he  had 
saved  a  few  hundred  dollars  as  a  clerk  in  a 
bookstore,  he  began  business  as  a  publisher. 
He  made  "  great  hits  "  in  some  of  the  works 
he  published,  such  as  "  Kane's  Arctic  Expe- 
dition." He  had  a  keen  sense  of  what  would 
please  the  public,  and  there  seemed  no  end  to 
his  industry. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  "  Ledger  "  was 
losing  money  every  day,  his  friends  could  not 
dissuade  him  from  buying  it,  and  in  1864 
the  dreams  of  his  boyhood  found  fulfilment. 
He  doubled  the  subscription  price,  lowered 
the  advertising  rates,  to  the  astonishment  of 
everybody,  and  the  paper  entered  upon  a  ca- 
reer of  remarkable  prosperity,  the  profits 
sometimes  amounting  to  over  four  hundred 
thousand  dollars  a  year.  He  always  refused 
to  lower  the  wages  of  his  employees  even 
when  every  other  establishment  in  Philadel- 
phia was  doing  so. 

At  a  banquet  in  Lyons,  nearly  a  century 
and  a  half  ago,  a  discussion  arose  in  regard 
to  the  meaning  of  a  painting  representing 
some  scene  in  the  mythology  or  history  of 
Greece,  Seeing  that  the  discussion  was 


40       PUSHING  TO  THE   FRONT 

growing  warm,  the  host  turned  to  one  of  the 
waiters  and  asked  him  to  explain  the  picture. 
Greatly  to  the  surprise  of  the  company,  the 
servant  gave  a  clear  and  concise  account  of 
the  whole  subject,  so  plain  and  convincing 
that  it  at  once  settled  the  dispute. 

"  In  what  school  have  you  studied,  Mon- 
sieur?" asked  one  of  the  guests,  addressing 
the  waiter  with  great  respect.  "  I  have  stud- 
ied in  many  schools,  Monseigneur,"  replied 
the  young  servant :  "  but  the  school  in  which 
I  studied  longest  and  learned  most  is  the 
school  of  adversity."  Well  had  he  profited 
by  poverty's  lessons;  for,  although  then  but 
a  poor  waiter,  all  Europe  soon  rang  with  the 
fame  of  the  writings  of  the  greatest  genius 
of  his  age  and  country,  Jean  Jacques  Rous- 
seau. 

The  smooth  sand  beach  of  Lake  Erie  con- 
stituted the  foolscap  on  which,  for  want  of 
other  material,  P.  R.  Spencer,  a  barefoot  boy 
with  no  chance,  perfected  the  essential  prin- 
ciples of  the  Spencerian  system  of  penman- 
ship, the  most  beautiful  exposition  of  graphic 
art. 

For  eight  years  William  Cobbett  had  fol- 
lowed the  plow,  when  he  ran  away  to  Lon- 
don, copied  law  papers  for  eight  or  nine 


BOYS    WITH   NO   CHANCE       41 

months,  and  then  enlisted  in  an  infantry  regi- 
ment. During  his  first  year  of  soldier  life 
he  subscribed  to  a  circulating  library  at  Chat- 
ham, read  every  book  in  it,  and  began  to  study. 
"  I  learned  grammar  when  I  was  a  private 
soldier  on  the  pay  of  sixpence  a  day.  The 
edge  of  my  berth,  or  that  of  the  guard-bed, 
was  my  seat  to  study  in;  my  knapsack  was 
my  bookcase ;  a  bit  of  board  lying  on  my  lap 
was  my  writing-table,  and  the  task  did  not 
demand  anything  like  a  year  of  my  life.  I 
had  no  money  to  purchase  candles  or  oil;  in 
winter  it  was  rarely  that  I  could  get  any 
evening  light  but  that  of  the  fire,  and  only 
my  turn,  even,  of  that.  To  buy  a  pen  or  a 
sheet  of  paper  I  was  compelled  to  forego 
some  portion  of  my  food,  though  in  a  state 
of  half  starvation.  I  had  no  moment  of  time 
that  I  could  call  my  own,  and  I  had  to  read 
and  write  amidst  the  talking,  laughing,  sing- 
ing, whistling,  and  bawling  of  at  least  half  a 
score  of  the  most  thoughtless  of  men,  and 
that,  too,  in  the  hours  of  their  freedom  from 
all  control.  Think  not  lightly  of  the  far- 
thing I  had  to  give,  now  and  then,  for  pen, 
ink,  or  paper.  That  farthing  was,  alas!  a 
great  sum  to  me.  I  was  as  tall  as  I  am  now, 
and  I  had  great  health  and  great  exercise, 


42       PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

The  whole  of  the  money  not  expended  for 
us  at  market  was  twopence  a  week  for  each 
man.  I  remember,  and  well  I  may !  that  upon 
one  occasion  I  had,  after  all  absolutely  neces- 
sary expenses,  made  shift  to  have  a  half -penny 
in  reserve,  which  I  had  destined  for  the  pur- 
chase of  a  red  herring  in  the  morning",  but 
so  hungry  as  to  be  hardly  able  to  endure  life, 
when  I  pulled  off  my  clothes  at  night,  I  found 
that  I  had  lost  my  half-penny.  I  buried  my 
head  under  the  miserable  sheet  and  rug,  and 
Cried  like  a  child." 

But  Cobbett  made  even  his  poverty  and 
hard  circumstances  serve  his  all-absorbing 
passion  for  knowledge  and  success.  "  If  I," 
said  he,  "  under  such  circumstances  could  en- 
counter and  overcome  this  task,  is  there,  can 
there  be  in  the  whole  world,  a  youth  to  find 
any  excuse  for  its  non-performance  ?  " 

Humphry  Davy  had  but  a  slender  chance 
to  acquire  great  scientific  knowledge,  yet  he 
had  true  mettle  in  him,  and  he  made  even 
old  pans,  kettles,  and  bottles  contribute  to  his 
success,  as  he  experimented  and  studied  in 
the  attic  of  the  apothecary-store  where  he 
worked* 

"  Many  a  farmer's  son,"  says  Thurlow 
Weed,  "  has  found  the  best  opportunities 


BOYS   WITH   NO  CHANCE       43 

for  mental  improvement  in  his  intervals  of 
leisure  while  tending  '  sap-bush/  Such,  at 
any  rate,  was  my  own  experience.  At  night 
you  had  only  to  feed  the  kettles  and  keep  up 
the  fires,  the  sap  having  been  gathered  and 
the  wood  cut  before  dark.  During  the  day 
we  would  always  lay  in  a  good  stock  of  '  fat- 
pine/  by  the  light  of  which,  blazing  bright 
before  the  sugar-house,  I  passed  many  a  de- 
lightful night  in  reading.  I  remember  in  this 
way  to  have  read  a  history  of  the  French 
Revolution,  and  to  have  obtained  a  better  and 
more  enduring  knowledge  of  its  events  and 
horrors  and  of  the  actors  in  that  great  national 
tragedy  than  I  have  received  from  all  subse- 
quent reading.  I  remember,  also,  how  happy 
I  was  in  being  able  to  borrow  the  books  of  a 
Mr.  Keyes,  after  a  two-mile  tramp  through 
the  snow,  shoeless,  my  feet  swaddled  in  rem- 
nants of  rag  carpet." 

"  May  I  have  a  holiday  to-morrow, 
father  ? "  asked  Theodore  Parker  one  Au- 
gust afternoon.  The  poor  Lexington  mill- 
wright looked  in  surprise  at  his  youngest 
son,  for  it  was  a  busy  time,  but  he  saw  from 
the  boy's  earnest  face  that  he  had  no  ordi- 
nary object  in  view,  and  granted  the  request. 
Theodore  rose  very  early  the  next  morning, 


44       PUSHING  TO   THE  FRONT 

walked  through  the  dust  ten  miles  to  Har- 
vard College,  and  presented  himself  as  a  can- 
didate for  admission.  He  had  been  unable 
to  attend  school  regularly  since  he  was  eight 
years  old,  but  he  had  managed  to  go  three 
months  each  winter,  and  had  reviewed  his 
lessons  again  and  again  as  he  followed  the 
plow  or  worked  at  other  tasks.  All  his  odd 
moments  had  been  hoarded,  too,  for  reading 
useful  books,  which  he  borrowed.  One  book 
he  could  not  borrow,  but  he  felt  that  he  must 
have  it ;  so  on  summer  mornings  he  rose  long 
before  the  sun  and  picked  bushel  after  bushel 
of  berries,  which  he  sent  to  Boston,  and  so 
got  the  money  to  buy  that  coveted  Latin  dic- 
tionary. 

"  Well  done,  my  boy !  "  said  the  millwright, 
when  his  son  came  home  late  at  night  and 
told  of  his  successful  examination ;  "  but, 
Theodore,  I  cannot  afford  to  keep  you 
there !  "  "  True,  father,"  said  Theodore,  "  I 
am  not  going  to  stay  there;  I  shall  study  at 
home,  at  odd  times,  and  thus  prepare  my- 
self for  a  final  examination,  which  will  give 
me  a  diploma."  He  did  this;  and,  by  teach- 
ing school  as  he  grew  older,  got  money  to 
study  for  two  years  at  Harvard,  where  he 
was  graduated  with  honor.  Years  after, 


BOYS   WITH   NO   CHANCE       45 

when,  as  the  trusted  friend  and  adviser  of 
Seward,  Chase,  Sumner,  Garrison,  Horace 
Mann,  and  Wendell  Phillips,  his  influence  for 
good  was  felt  in  the  hearts  of  all  his  country- 
men, it  was  a  pleasure  for  him  to  recall  his 
early  struggles  and  triumphs  among  the  rocks 
and  bushes  of  Lexington. 

"The  proudest  moment  of  my  life,"  said 
Elihu  Burritt,  "was  when  I  had  first  gained 
the  full  meaning  of  the  first  fifteen  lines  of 
Homer's  Iliad."  Elihu  Burritt's  father  died 
when  he  was  sixteen,  and  Elihu  was  appren- 
ticed to  a  backsmith  in  his  native  village  of 
Niew  Britain,  Conn.  He  had  to  work  at  the 
forge  ten  or  twelve  hours  a  day;  but  while 
blowing  the  bellows,  he  would  solve  mentally 
difficult  problems  in  arithmetic.  In  a  diary 
kept  at  Worcester,  whither  he  went  some  ten 
years  later  to  enjoy  its  library  privileges,  are 
such  entries  as  these, — "  Monday,  June  18, 
headache,  40  pages  Cuvier's  'Theory  of  the 
Earth/  64  pages  French,  n  hours'  forging. 
Tuesday,  June  19,  60  lines  Hebrew,  30  Dan- 
ish, 10  lines  Bohemian,  9  lines  Polish,  15 
names  of  stars,  10  hours'  forging.  Wednes- 
day, June  20,  25  lines  Hebrew,  8  lines  Syriac, 
ii  hours'  forging."  He  mastered  18  lan- 
guages and  32  dialects.  He  became  eminent 


46       PUSHING  TO   THE   FRONT 

as  the  "  Learned  Blacksmith,"  and  for  his 
noble  work  in  the  service  of  humanity.  Ed- 
ward Everett  said  of  the  manner  in  which 
this  boy  with  no  chance  acquired  great  learn- 
ing :  "  It  is  enough  to  make  one  who  has 
good  opportunities  for  education  hang  his 
head  in  shame." 

The  barefoot  Christine  Nilsson  in  remote 
Sweden  had  little  chance,  but  she  won  the 
admiration  of  the  world  for  her  wondrous 
power  of  song,  combined  with  rare  womanly 
grace. 

"Let  me  say  in  regard  to  your  adverse 
worldly  circumstances,"  says  Dr.  Talmage 
to  young  men,  "  that  you  are  on  a  level  now 
with  those  who  are  finally  to  succeed.  Mark 
my  words,  and  think  of  it  thirty  years  from 
now.  You  will  find  that  those  who  are  then 
the  millionaires  of  this  country,  who  are  the 
orators  of  the  country,  who  are  the  poets  of 
the  country,  who  are  the  strong  merchants 
of  the  country,  who  are  the  great  philanthro- 
pists of  the  country, — mightiest  in  the  church 
and  state, — are  now  on  a  level  with  you,  not 
an  inch  above  you,  and  in  straitened  circum- 
stances. 

"  No  outfit,  no  capital  to  start  with  ? 
Young  man,  go  down  to  the  library  and  get 


BOYS   WITH  NO  CHANCE       4? 

some  books,  and  read  of  what  wonderful 
mechanism  God  gave  you  in  your  hand,  in 
your  foot,  in  your  eye,  in  your  ear,  and  then 
ask  some  doctor  to  take  you  into  the  dissect- 
ing-room and  illustrate  to  you  what  you  have 
read  about,  and  never  again  commit  the  blas- 
phemy of  saying  you  have  no  capital  to  start 
with.  Equipped?  Why,  the  poorest  young 
man  is  equipped  as  only  the  God  of  the  whole 
universe  could  afford  to  equip  him" 

A  newsboy  is  not  a  very  promising  candi- 
date for  success  or  honors  in  any  line  of  life. 
A  young  man  can't  set  out  in  life  with  much 
less  chance  than  when  he  starts  his  "  daily  " 
for  a  living.  Yet  the  man  who  more  than 
any  other  is  responsible  for  the  industrial  re- 
generation of  this  continent  started  in  life  as 
a  newsboy  on  the  Grand  Trunk  Railway. 
Thomas  Alva  Edison  was  then  about  fifteen 
years  of  age.  He  had  already  begun  to  dab- 
ble in  chemistry,  and  had  fitted  up  a  small 
itinerant  laboratory.  One  day,  as  he  was  per- 
forming some  occult  experiment,  the  train 
rounded  a  curve,  and  the  bottle  of  sulphuric 
acid  broke.  There  followed  a  series  of  un- 
earthly odors  and  unnatural  complications. 
The  conductor,  who  had  suffered  long  and 
patiently,  promptly  ejected  the  youthful  dev- 


48       PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

otee,  and  in  the  process  of  the  scientist's  ex- 
pulsion added  a  resounding  box  upon  the  ear. 

Edison  passed  through  one  dramatic  situa- 
tion after  another — always  mastering  it — • 
until  he  attained  at  an  early  age  the  sci- 
entific throne  of  the  world.  When  recently 
asked  the  secret  of  his  success,  he  said  he 
had  always  been  a  total  abstainer  and  singu- 
larly moderate  in  everything  but  work. 

Daniel  Manning,  who  was  President  Cleve- 
land's first  campaign  manager  and  after- 
wards Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  started  out 
as  a  newsboy  with  apparently  the  world 
against  him.  So  did  Thurlow  Weed;  so  did 
David  B.  Hill.  New  York  seems  to  have 
been  prolific  in  enterprising  newsboys. 

What  nonsense  for  two  uneducated  and 
unknown  youths  who  met  in  a  cheap  board- 
ing-house in  Boston  to  array  themselves 
against  an  institution  whose  roots  were  em- 
bedded in  the  very  constitution  of  our  coun- 
try, and  which  was  upheld  by  scholars,  states- 
men, churches,  wealth,  and  aristocracy,  with- 
out distinction  of  creed  or  politics!  What 
chance  had  they  against  the  prejudices  and 
sentiment  of  a  nation?  But  these  young  men 
were  fired  by  a  lofty  purpose,  and  they  were 
thoroughly  in  earnest.  One  of  them,  Ben- 


BOYS    WITH   NO   CHANCE       49 

jamin  Lundy,  had  already  started  in  Ohio  a 
paper  called  "  The  Genius  of  Universal  Lib- 
erty," and  had  carried  the  entire  edition 
home  on  his  back  from  the  printing-office, 
twenty  miles,  every  month.  He  had  walked 
four  hundred  miles  on  his  way  to  Tennessee 
to  increase  his  subscription  list.  He  was  no 
ordinary  young  man. 

With  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  he  started 
to  prosecute  his  work  more  earnestly  in  Bal- 
timore. The  sight  of  the  slave-pens  along 
the  principal  streets;  of  vessel-loads  of  un- 
fortunates torn  from  home  and  family  and 
sent  to  Southern  ports;  the  heartrending 
scenes  at  the  auction  blocks,  made  an  impres- 
sion on  Garrison  never  to  be  forgotten;  and 
the  young  man  whose  mother  was  too  poor 
to  send  him  to  school,  although  she  early 
taught  him  to  hate  oppression,  resolved  to 
devote  his  life  to  secure  the  freedom  of  these 
poor  wretches. 

In  the  very  first  issue  of  his  paper,  Garri- 
son urged  an  immediate  emancipation,  and 
called  down  upon  his  head  the  wrath  of  the 
entire  community.  He  was  arrested  and  sent 
to  jail.  John  G.  Whittier,  a  noble  Friend  in 
the  North,  was  so  touched  at  the  news  that, 
being  too  poor  to  furnish  the  money  himself, 


50      PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

he  wrote  to  Henry  Clay,  begging  him  to  re- 
lease Garrison  by  paying  the  fine.  After 
forty-nine  days  of  imprisonment  he  was  set 
free.  Wendell  Phillips  said  of  him,  "  He  was 
imprisoned  for  his  opinion  when  he  was 
twenty- four.  He  had  confronted  a  nation  in 
the  bloom  of  his  youth." 

In  Boston,  with  no  money,  friends,  or  in- 
fluence, in  a  little  upstairs  room,  Garrison 
started  the  "Liberator."  Read  the  declara- 
tion of  this  poor  young  man  with  "  no 
chance,"  in  the  very  first  issue :  "  I  will  be 
as  harsh  as  truth,  as  uncompromising  as  jus- 
tice. I  am  in  earnest.  I  will  not  equivocate, 
I  will  not  excuse ;  I  will  not  retreat  a  single 
inch,  and  I  will  be  heard."  What  audacity 
for  a  young  man,  with  the  world  against 
him! 

Hon.  Robert  Y.  Hayne,  of  South  Carolina, 
wrote  to  Otis,  mayor  of  Boston,  that  some 
one  had  sent  him  a  copy  of  the  "  Liberator," 
and  asked  him  to  ascertain  the  name  of  the 
publisher.  Otis  replied  that  he  had  found  a 
poor  young  man  printing  "  this  insignificant 
sheet  in  an  obscure  hole,  his  only  auxiliary  a 
negro  boy,  his  supporters  a  few  persons  of 
all  colors  and  little  influence. 

But  this  poor  young  man,  eating,  sleeping, 


BOYS   WITH   NO   CHANCE       51 

and  printing  in  this  "obscure  hole,"  had  set 
the  world  to  thinking,  and  must  be  sup- 
pressed. The  Vigilance  Association  of  South 
Carolina  offered  a  reward  of  fifteen  hundred 
dollars  for  the  arrest  and  prosecution  of  any 
one  detected  circulating  the  "  Liberator." 
The  Governors  of  one  or  two  States  set  a 
price  on  the  editor's  head.  The  legislature 
of  Georgia  offered  a  reward  of  five  thousand 
dollars  for  his  arrest  and  conviction. 

Garrison  and  his  coadjutors  were  de- 
nounced everywhere.  A  clergyman  named 
Love  joy  was  killed  by  a  mob  in  Illinois  for 
espousing  the  cause,  while  defending  his 
printing-press,  and  in  the  old  "  Cradle  of 
American  Liberty "  the  wealth,  power,  and 
culture  of  Massachusetts  arrayed  itself 
against  the  "Abolitionists"  so  outrageously, 
that  a  mere  spectator,  a  young  lawyer  of 
great  promise,  asked  to  be  lifted  upon  the 
high  platform,  and  replied  in  such  a  speech 
as  was  never  before  heard  in  Faneuil  Hall. 
"  When  I  heard  the  gentleman  lay  down 
principles  which  place  the  murderers  of  Love- 
joy  at  Alton  side  by  side  with  Otis  and  Han- 
cock, with  Quincy  and  Adams,"  said  Wendell 
Phillips,  pointing  to  their  portraits  on  the 
walls,  "  I  thought  those  pictured  lips  would 


52      PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

have  broken  into  voice  to  rebuke  the  recreant 
American,  the  slanderer  of  the  dead.  For  the 
sentiments  that  he  has  uttered,  on  soil  con- 
secrated by  the  prayers  of  the  Puritans  and 
the  blood  of  patriots,  the  earth  should  have 
yawned  and  swallowed  him  up." 

The  whole  nation  was  wrought  to  fever 
heat. 

Between  the  Northern  pioneers  and  South- 
ern chivalry  the  struggle  was  long  and  fierce, 
even  in  far  California.  The  drama  culmi- 
nated in  the  shock  of  civil  war.  When  the  war 
was  ended,  and,  after  thirty-five  years  of  un- 
tiring, heroic  conflict,  Garrison  was  invited  as 
the  nation's  guest,  by  President  Lincoln,  to 
see  the  stars  and  stripes  unfurled  once  more 
above  Fort  Sumter,  an  emancipated  slave  de- 
livered the  address  of  welcome,  and  his  two 
daughters,  no  longer  chattels,  in  appreciation 
presented  Garrison  with  a  beautiful  wreath  of 
flowers. 

About  this  time  Richard  Cobden,  another 
powerful  friend  of  the  oppressed,  died  in 
London. 

His  father  had  died  leaving  nine  children 
almost  penniless.  The  boy  earned  his  living 
by  watching  a  neighbor's  sheep,  but  had  no 
chance  to  attend  school  until  he  was  ten  years 


BOYS   WITH   NO   CHANCE       53 

old.  He  was  sent  to  a  boarding-school,  where 
he  was  abused,  half  starved,  and  allowed  to 
write  home  only  once  in  three  months.  At 
fifteen  he  entered  his  uncle's  store  in  London 
as  a  clerk.  He  learned  French  by  rising  early 
and  studying  while  his  companions  slept.  He 
was  soon  sent  out  in  a  gig  as  a  commercial 
traveler. 

He  called  upon  John  Bright  to  enlist  his 
aid  in  fighting  the  terrible  "  Corn-Laws " 
which  were  taking  bread  from  the  poor  and 
giving  it  to  the  rich.  He  found  Mr.  Bright 
in  great  grief,  for  his  wife  was  lying  dead  in 
the  house. 

"  There  are  thousands  of  homes  in  England 
at  this  moment,"  said  Richard  Cobden,  "  where 
wives,  mothers,  and  children  are  dying  of 
hunger.  Now,  when  the  first  paroxysm  of 
grief  is  passed,  I  would  advise  you  to  come 
with  me,  and  we  will  never  rest  until  the  Corn- 
Laws  are  repealed."  Cobden  could  no  longer 
see  the  poor  man's  bread  stopped  at  the  Cus- 
tom-House  and  taxed  for  the  benefit  of 
the  landlord  and  farmer,  and  he  threw  his 
whole  soul  into  this  great  reform.  "  This  is 
not  a  party  question,"  said  he,  "  for  men  of 
all  parties  are  united  upon  it.  It  is  a  pantry 
question, — a  question  between  the  working 


54      PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

millions  and  the  aristocracy."  They  formed 
the  "  Anti-Corn-Law  League,"  which,  aided  by 
the  Irish  famine, — for  it  was  hunger  that  at 
last  ate  through  those  stone  walls  of  protec- 
tion,— secured  the  repeal  of  the  law  in  1846. 
Mr.  Bright  said:  "There  is  not  in  Great 
Britain  a  poor  man's  home  that  has  not  a 
bigger,  better,  and  cheaper  loaf  through 
Richard  Cobden's  labors." 

John  Bright  himself  was  the  son  of  a  poor 
working  man,  and  in  those  days  the  doors  of 
the  higher  schools  were  closed  to  such  as  he; 
but  the  great  Quaker  heart  of  this  resolute 
youth  was  touched  with  pity  for  the  millions 
of  England's  and  Ireland's  poor,  starving  un- 
der the  Corn-Laws.  During  the  frightful 
famine,  which  cut  off  two  millions  of  Ire- 
land's population  in  a  year,  John  Bright  was 
more  powerful  than  all  the  nobility  of  Eng- 
land. The  whole  aristocracy  trembled  before 
his  invincible  logic,  his  mighty  eloquence, 
and  his  commanding  character.  Except  pos- 
sibly Cobden,  no  other  man  did  so  much  to 
give  the  laborer  a  shorter  day,  a  cheaper  loaf, 
an  added  shilling. 

Over  a  stable  in  London  lived  a  poor  boy 
named  Michael  Faraday,  who  carried  news- 
papers about  the  streets  to  loan  to  customers 


BOYS    WITH   NO   CHANCE       55 

for  a  penny  apiece.  He  was  apprenticed  for 
seven  years  to  a  bookbinder  and  bookseller. 
When  binding  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica, 
his  eyes  caught  the  article  on  electricity,  and 
he  could  not  rest  until  he  had  read  it.  He 
procured  a  glass  vial,  an  old  pan,  and  a  few 
simple  articles,  and  began  to  experiment.  A 
customer  became  interested  in  the  boy,  and 
took  him  to  hear  Sir  Humphry  Davy  lecture 
on  chemistry.  He  summoned  courage  to  write 
the  great  scientist  and  sent  the  notes  he  had 
taken  of  his  lecture.  One  night,  not  long  af- 
ter, just  as  Michael  was  about  to  retire,  Sir 
Humphry  Davy's  carriage  stopped  at  his 
humble  lodging,  and  a  servant  handed  him 
a  written  invitation  to  call  upon  the  great 
lecturer  the  next  morning.  Michael  could 
scarcely  trust  his  eyes  as  he  read  the  note. 
In  the  morning  he  called  as  requested,  and 
was  engaged  to  clean  instruments  and  take 
them  to  and  from  the  lecture-room.  He 
watched  eagerly  every  movement  of  Davy,  as 
with  a  glass  mask  over  his  face,  he  developed 
his  safety-lamp  and  experimented  with  dan- 
gerous explosives.  Michael  studied  and  ex- 
perimented, too,  and  it  was  not  long  before 
this  poor  boy  with  no  chance  was  invited  to 
lecture  before  the  great  philosophical  society. 


$6      PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

He  was  appointed  professor  at  the  Royal 
Academy  at  Woolwich,  and  became  the  won- 
der of  the  age  in  science.  Tyndall  said  of 
him,  "  He  is  the  greatest  experimental  phil- 
osopher the  world  has  ever  seen."  When  Sir 
Humphry  Davy  was  asked  what  was  his  great- 
est discovery,  he  replied,  "  Michael  Faraday." 

"  What  has  been  done  can  be  done  again," 
said  the  boy  with  no  chance,  Disraeli,  who  be- 
came Lord  Beaconsfield,  England's  great 
Prime  Minister.  "  I  am  not  a  slave,  I  am  not 
a  captive,  and  by  energy  I  can  overcome 
greater  obstacles."  Jewish  blood  flowed  in  his 
veins  and  everything  seemed  against  him,  but 
he  remembered  the  example  of  Joseph,  who 
became  Prime  Minister  of  Egypt  four  thou- 
sand years  before,  and  that  of  Daniel,  who 
was  Prime  Minister  to  the  greatest  despot  of 
the  world  five  centuries  before  the  birth  of 
Christ.  He  pushed  his  way  up  through  the 
lower  classes,  up  through  the  middle  classes, 
up  through  the  upper  classes,  until  he  stood  a 
master,  self-poised  upon  the  topmost  round  of 
political  and  social  power.  Rebuffed,  scorned, 
ridiculed,  hissed  down  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, he  simply  said,  "The  time  will  come 
when  you  will  hear  me."  The  time  did  come, 
and  the  boy  with  no  chance  but  a  determined 


BOYS   WITH   NO   CHANCE       57 

will  swayed  vhe  scepter  of  England  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century. 

Henry  Clay,  the  "  mill-boy  of  the  slashes," 
was  one  of  seven  children  of  a  widow  too  poor 
to  send  him  to  any  but  a  common  country 
school,  where  he  was  drilled  only  in  the  "  three 
R's."  But  he  used  every  spare  moment  to 
study  without  a  teacher,  and  in  after  years  he 
was  a  king  among  self-made  men.  The  boy 
who  had  learned  to  speak  in  a  barn,  with  only 
a  cow  and  a  horse  for  an  audience,  became 
one  of  the  greatest  of  American  orators  and 
statesmen. 

See  Kepler  struggling  with  poverty  and 
hardship,  his  books  burned  in  public  by  order 
of  the  state,  his  library  locked  up  by  the 
Jesuits,  and  himself  exiled  by  public  clamor. 
For  seventeen  years  he  works  calmly  upon 
the  demonstration  of  the  great  principles  that 
planets  revolve  in  ellipses,  with  the  sun  at  one 
focus ;  that  a  line  connecting  the  center  of  the 
earth  with  the  center  of  the  sun  passes  over 
equal  spaces  in  equal  times,  and  that  the 
squares  of  the  times  of  revolution  of  the  plan- 
ets about  the  sun  are  proportioned  to  the  cubes 
of  their  mean  distances  from  the  sun.  This 
boy  with  no  chance  became  one  of  the  world's 
greatest  astronomers. 


58      PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

"When  I  found  that  I  was  black,"  said 
Alexandra  Dumas,  "  I  resolved  to  live  as  if  I 
were  white,  and  so  force  men  to  look  below 
my  skin." 

How  slender  seemed  the  chance  of  James 
Sharpies,  the  celebrated  blacksmith  artist  of 
England!  He  was  very  poor,  but  he  often 
rose  at  three  o'clock  to  copy  books  he  could 
not  buy.  He  would  walk  eighteen  miles  to 
Manchester  and  back  after  a  hard  day's  work 
to  buy  a  shilling's  worth  of  artist's  materials. 
He  would  ask  for  the  heaviest  work  in  the 
blacksmith  shop,  because  it  took  a  longer  time 
to  heat  at  the  forge,  and  he  could  thus  have 
many  spare  minutes  to  study  the  precious 
book,  which  he  propped  up  against  the  chim- 
ney. He  was  a  great  miser  of  spare  moments 
and  used  every  one  as  though  he  might  never 
see  another.  He  devoted  his  leisure  hours  for 
five  years  to  that  wonderful  production,  "  The 
Forge,"  copies  of  which  are  to  be  seen  in 
many  a  home. 

What  chance  had  Galileo  to  win  renown  in 
physics  or  astronomy,  when  his  parents  com- 
pelled him  to  go  to  a  medical  school?  Yet 
while  Venice  slept,  he  stood  in  the  tower  of 
St.  Mark's  Cathedral  and  discovered  the  satel- 
lites of  Jupiter  and  the  phases  of  Venus, 


BOYS   WITH   NO   CHANCE       59 

through  a  telescope  made  with  his  own  hands. 
When  compelled  on  bended  knee  to  publicly 
renounce  his  heretical  doctrine  that  the  earth 
moves  around  the  sun,  all  the  terrors  of  the 
Inquisition  could  not  keep  this  feeble  man  of 
threescore  years  and  ten  from  muttering  to 
himself,  "  Yet  it  does  move."  When  thrown 
into  prison,  so  great  was  his  eagerness  for 
scientific  research  that  he  proved  by  a  straw 
in  his  cell  that  a  hollow  tube  is  relatively 
much  stronger  than  a  solid  rod  of  the  same 
size.  Even  when  totally  blind,  he  kept  con- 
stantly at  work. 

Imagine  the  surprise  of  the  Royal  Society 
of  England  when  the  poor  unknown  Herschel 
sent  in  the  report  of  his  discovery  of  the  star 
Georgium  Sidus,  its  orbit  and  rate  of  motion ; 
and  of  the  rings  and  satellites  of  Saturn.  The 
boy  with  no  chance,  who  had  played  the  oboe 
for  his  meals,  had  with  his  own  hands  made 
the  telescope  through  which  he  discovered 
facts  unknown  to  the  best-equipped  astrono- 
mers of  his  day.  He  had  ground  two  hundred 
specula  before  he  could  get  one  perfect. 

George  Stephenson  was  one  of  eight  chil- 
dren whose  parents  were  so  poor  that  all  lived 
in  a  single  room.  George  had  to  watch  cows 
for  a  neighbor,  but  he  managed  to  get  time  to 


60       PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

make  engines  of  clay,  with  hemlock  sticks 
for  pipes.  At  seventeen  he  had  charge  of  an 
engine,  with  his  father  for  fireman.  He  could 
neither  read  nor  write,  but  the  engine  was  his 
teacher,  and  he  a  faithful  student.  While  the 
other  hands  were  playing  games  or  loafing  in 
liquor  shops  during  the  holidays,  George  was 
taking  his  machine  to  pieces,  cleaning  it, 
studying  it,  and  making  experiments  in  en- 
gines. When  he  had  become  famous  as  a 
great  inventor  of  improvements  in  engines, 
those  who  had  loafed  and  played  called  him 
lucky. 

Without  a  charm  of  face  or  figure,  Char- 
lotte Cushman  resolved  to  place  herself  in  the 
front  rank  as  an  actress,  even  in  such  char- 
acters as  Rosalind  and  Queen  Katherine.  The 
star  actress  was  unable  to  perform,  and  Miss 
Cushman,  her  understudy,  took  her  placel 
That  night  she  held  her  audience  with  such 
grasp  of  intellect  and  iron  will  that  it  forgot 
the  absence  of  mere  dimpled  feminine  grace. 
Although  poor,  friendless,  and  unknown  be- 
fore, when  the  curtain  fell  upon  her  first 
performance  at  the  London  theater,  her 
reputation  was  made.  In  after  years,  when 
physicians  told  her  she  had  a  terrible,  incur- 
able disease,  she  flinched  not  a  particle,  but 


BOYS   WITH   NO  CHANCE       61 

quietly  said,  "  I  have  learned  to  live  with  my 
trouble." 

A  poor  colored  woman  in  a  log  cabin  in 
the  South  had  three  boys,  but  could  afford 
only  one  pair  of  trousers  for  the  three.  She 
was  so  anxious  to  give  them  an  education 
that  she  sent  them  to  school  by  turns.  The 
teacher,  a  Northern  girl,  noticed  that  each 
boy  came  to  school  only  one  day  out  of  three, 
and  that  all  wore  the  same  pantaloons.  The 
poor  mother  educated  her  boys  as  best  she 
could.  One  became  a  professor  in  a  South- 
ern college,  another  a  physician,  and  the  third 
a  clergyman.  What  a  lesson  for  boys  who 
plead  "  no  chance  "  as  an  excuse  for  wasted 
lives ! 

Sam  Cunard,  the  whittling  Scotch  lad  of 
Glasgow,  wrought  out  many  odd  inventions 
with  brain  and  jack-knife,  but  they  brought 
neither  honor  nor  profit  until  he  was  con- 
sulted by  Burns  &  Mclvor,  who  wished  to 
increase  their  facilities  for  carrying  foreign 
mails.  The  model  of  a  steamship  which  Sam 
whittled  out  for  them  was  carefully  copied 
for  the  first  vessel  of  the  great  Cunard  Line, 
and  became  the  standard  type  for  all  the  mag- 
nificent ships  since  constructed  by  the  firm. 

The  New  Testament  and  the  speller  were 


62       PUSHING  TO  THE   FRONT 

Cornelius  Vanderbilt's  only  books  at  school, 
but  he  learned  to  read,  write,  and  cipher  a 
little.  He  wished  to  buy  a  boat,  but  had  no 
money.  To  discourage  him  from  following 
the  sea,  his  mother  told  him  if  he  would 
plow,  harrow,  and  plant  with  corn,  before 
'the  twenty-seventh  day  of  the  month,  ten 
acres  of  rough,  hard,  stony  land,  the  worst  on 
his  father's  farm,  she  would  lend  him  the 
amount  he  wished.  Before  the  appointed 
time  the  work  was  done,  and  well  done.  On 
his  seventeenth  birthday  he  bought  the  boat, 
but  on  his  way  home  it  struck  a  sunken  wreck 
and  sank  just  as  he  reached  shallow  water. 

But  Cornelius  Vanderbilt  was  not  the  boy 
to  give  up.  He  at  once  began  again,  and  in 
three  years  saved  three  thousand  dollars.  He 
often  worked  all  night,  and  soon  had  far  the 
largest  patronage  of  any  boatman  in  the  har- 
bor. During  the  War  of  1812  he  was  awarded 
the  Government  contract  to  carry  provisions 
to  the  military  stations  near  the  metropolis. 
He  fulfilled  this  contract  by  night  so  that  he 
might  run  his  ferry-boat  between  New  York 
and  Brooklyn  by  day. 

The  boy  who  gave  his  parents  all  his  day 
earnings  and  half  of  what  he  got  at  night, 
was  worth  thirty  thousand  dollars  at  thirty- 


BOYS   WITH   NO   CHANCE       63 

five,  and  when  he  died,  at  an  advanced  age,  he 
left  to  his  thirteen  children  one  of  the  largest 
fortunes  in  America. 

Lord  Eldon  might  well  have  pleaded  "no 
chance  "  when  a  boy,  for  he  was  too  poor  to 
go  to  school  or  even  to  buy  books.  But  no; 
he  had  grit  and  determination,  and  was 
bound  to  make  his  way  in  the  world.  He  rose 
at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  copied  law 
books  which  he  borrowed,  the  voluminous 
"  Coke  upon  Littleton  "  among  others.  He 
was  so  eager  to  study  that  sometimes  he 
would  keep  it  up  until  his  brain  refused  to 
work,  when  he  would  tie  a  wet  towel  about 
his  head  to  enable  him  to  keep  awake  and  to 
study.  His  first  year's  practise  brought  him 
but  nine  shillings,  yet  he  was  bound  not  to 
give  up. 

When  Eldon  was  leaving  the  chamber  the 
Solicitor  tapped  him  on  the  shoulder  and  said, 
"  Young  man,  your  bread  and  butter's  cut  for 
life."  The  boy  with  "  no  chance "  became 
Lord  Chancellor  of  England,  and  one  of  the 
greatest  lawyers  of  his  age. 

Stephen  Girard  had  "  no  chance."  He  left 
his  home  in  France  when  ten  years  old,  and 
came  to  America  as  a  cabin  boy.  His  great 
ambition  was  to  get  on  and  to  succeed  at  any 


64       PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

cost.  There  was  no  work,  however  hard  and 
disagreeable,  that  he  would  not  undertake. 
Midas-like,  he  turned  to  gold  everything  he 
touched,  and  became  one  of  the  wealthiest 
merchants  of  Philadelphia.  His  abnormal 
love  of  money  cannot  be  commended,  but  his 
thoroughness  in  all  he  did,  his  public  spirit  at 
times  of  national  need,  and  willingness  to  risk 
his  life  to  save  strangers  sick  with  the  deadly 
yellow  fever,  are  traits  of  character  well 
worthy  of  imitation. 

John  Wanamaker  walked  four  miles  to 
Philadelphia  every  day,  and  worked  in  a  book- 
store for  one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  a 
week.  He  next  worked  in  a  clothing  store  at 
an  advance  of  twenty-five  cents  a  week.  From 
this  he  went  up  and  up  until  he  became  one 
of  the  greatest  living  merchants.  He  was 
appointed  Postmaster-General  by  President 
Harrison  in  1889,  and  in  that  capacity  showed 
great  executive  ability. 

Prejudice  against  her  race  and  sex  did  not 
deter  the  colored  girl,  Edmonia  Lewis,  from 
struggling  upward  to  honor  and  fame  as  a 
sculptor. 

Fred  Douglass  started  in  life  with  less  than 
nothing,  for  he  did  not  own  h'is  own  body, 
and  he  was  pledged  before  his  birth  to  pay  his 


BOYS   WITH   NO  CHANCE       65 

master's  debts.  To  reach  the  starting-point 
of  the  poorest  white  boy,  he  had  to  climb  as 
far  as  the  distance  which  the  latter  must  as- 
cend if  he  would  become  President  of  the 
United  States.  He  saw  his  mother  but  two 
or  three  times,  and  then  in  the  night,  when 
she  would  walk  twelve  miles  to  be  with  him 
an  hour,  returning  in  time  to  go  into  the  field 
at  dawn.  He  had  no  chance  to  study,  for  he 
had  no  teacher,  and  the  rules  of  the  plantation 
forbade  slaves  to  learn  to  read  and  write.  But 
somehow,  unnoticed  by  his  master,  he  man- 
aged to  learn  the  alphabet  from  scraps  of  pa- 
per and  patent  medicine  almanacs,  and  then 
no  limits  ;could  be  placed  to  his  career.  He 
put  to  shame  thousands  of  white  boys.  He 
fled  from  slavery  at  twenty-one,  went  North, 
and  worked  as  a  stevedore  in  New  York  and 
New  Bedford.  At  Nantucket  he  was  given 
an  opportunity  to  speak  in  an  anti-slavery 
meeting,  and  made  so  favorable  an  impres- 
sion that  he  was  made  agent  of  the  Anti- 
Slavery  Society  of  Massachusetts.  While 
traveling  from  place  to  place  to  lecture,  he 
would  study  with  all  his  might.  He  was  sent 
to  Europe  to  lecture,  and  won  the  friendship 
of  several  Englishmen,  who  gave  him  $750, 
with  which  he  purchased  his  freedom.  He 


66       PUSHING  TO   THE   FRONT 

edited  a  paper  in  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  and  after- 
wards conducted  the  "  New  Era  "  in  Wash- 
ington. For  several  years  he  was  Marshal 
of  the  District  of  Columbia. 

Henry  E.  Dixey,  the  well-known  actor,  be- 
gan his  career  upon  the  stage  in  the  humble 
part  of  the  hind  legs  of  a  cow. 

P.  T.  Barnum  rode  a  horse  for  ten  cents  a 
day. 

It  was  a  boy  born  in  a  log-cabin,  without 
schooling,  or  books,  or  teacher,  or  ordinary 
opportunities,  who  won  the  admiration  of 
mankind  by  his  homely  practical  wisdom 
while  President  during  our  Civil  War,  and 
who  emancipated  four  million  slaves. 

Behold  this  long,  lank,  awkward  youth,  fell- 
ing trees  on  the  little  claim,  building  his 
homely  log-cabin,  without  floor  or  windows, 
teaching  himself  arithmetic  and  grammar  in 
the  evening  by  the  light  of  the  fireplace.  In 
his  eagerness  to  know  the  contents  of  Black- 
stone's  Commentaries,  he  walked  forty-four 
miles  to  procure  the  precious  volumes,  and 
read  one  hundred  pages  while  returning. 
Abraham  Lincoln  inherited  no  opportunities, 
and  acquired  nothing  by  luck.  His  good  for- 
tune consisted  simply  of  untiring  persever- 
ance and  a  right  heart. 


BOYS   WITH   NO  CHANCE       6? 

In  another  log-cabin,  in  the  backwoods  of 
Ohio,  a  poor  widow  is  holding  a  boy  eighteen 
months  old,  and  wondering  if  she  will  be  able 
to  keep  the  wolf  from  her  little  ones.  The 
boy  grows,  and  in  a  few  years  we  find  him 
chopping  wood  and  tilling  the  little  clearing 
in  the  forest,  to  help  his  mother.  Every  spare 
hour  is  spent  in  studying  the  books  he  has 
borrowed,  but  cannot  buy.  At  sixteen  he 
gladly  accepts  a  chance  to  drive  mules  on  a 
canal  towpath.  Soon  he  applies  for  a  chance 
to  sweep  floors  and  ring  the  bell  of  an  acad- 
emy, to  pay  his  way  while  studying  there. 

His  first  term  at  Geauga  Seminary  cost 
him  but  seventeen  dollars.  When  he  returned 
the  next  term  he  had  but  a  sixpence  in  his 
pocket,  and  this  he  put  into  the  contribution 
box  at  church  the  next  day.  He  engaged 
board,  washing,  fuel,  and  light  of  a  carpenter 
at  one  dollar  and  six  cents  a  week,  with  the 
privilege  of  working  at  night  and  on  Satur- 
days all  the  time  he  could  spare.  He  had  ar- 
rived on  a  Saturday  and  planed  fifty-one 
boards  that  day,  for  which  he  received  one 
dollar  and  two  cents.  When  the  term  closed, 
he  had  paid  all  expenses  and  had  three  dollars 
over.  The  following  winter  he  taught  school 
at  twelve  dollars  a  month  and  "  board  around," 


68       PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

In  the  spring  he  had  forty-eight  dollars,  and 
when  he  returned  to  school  he  boarded  him- 
self at  an  expense  of  thirty-one  cents  a  week. 

Soon  we  find  him  in  Williams  College, 
where  in  two  years  he  is  graduated  with  hon- 
ors. He  reaches  the  State  Senate  at  twenty- 
six  and  Congress  at  thirty-three.  Twenty- 
seven  years  from  the  time  he  applied  for  a 
chance  to  ring  the  bell  at  Hiram  College, 
James  A.  Garfield  became  President  of  the 
United  States.  The  inspiration  of  such  an 
example  is  worth  more  to  the  young  men  of 
America  than  all  the  wealth  of  the  Astors,  the 
^Vanderbilts,  and  the  Goulds. 

Among  the  world's  greatest  heroes  and 
benefactors  are  many  others  whose  cradles 
were  rocked  by  want  in  lowly  cottages,  and 
who  buffeted  the  billows  of  fate  without  de- 
pendence, save  upon  the  mercy  of  God  and 
their  own  energies. 

I "  The  little  gray  cabin  apppears  to  be  the 

birthplace  of  all  your  great  men/'  said  an 
English  author  who  had  been  looking  over  a 
book  of  biographies  of  eminent  Americans. 

With  five  chances  on  each  hand  and  one 
unwavering  aim,  no  boy,  however  poor,  need 
despair.  There  is  bread  and  success  for 
every  youth  under  the  American  flag  who 


BOYS   WITH   NO  CHANCE       69 

has  energy  and  ability  to  seise  his  opportu- 
nity. It  matters  not  whether  the  boy  is  born 
in  a  log-cabin  or  in  a  mansion;  if  he  is  dom- 
inated by  a  resolute  purpose  and  upholds 
himself,  neither  men  nor  demons  can  keep 
him  down. 


III.    POSSIBILITIES    IN    SPARE   MO- 
MENTS 

Dost  thou  love  life?  Then  do  not  squander  time, 
for  that  is  the  stuff  life  is  made  of.— FRANKLIN. 

Eternity  itself  cannot  restore  the  loss  struck  from 
the  minute. — ANCIENT  POET. 

Periunt  et  imputantur, — the  hours  perish  and  are 
laid  to  our  charge.— INSCRIPTION  ON  A  DIAL  AT  OX- 
FORD. 

I  wasted  time,  and  now  doth  time  waste  me.— 
SHAKESPEARE. 

Believe  me  when  I  tell  you  that  thrift  of  time  will 
repay  you  in  after  life  with  a  usury  of  profit  be- 
yond your  most  sanguine  dreams,  and  that  waste  of 
it  will  make  you  dwindle  alike  in  intellectual  and 
moral  stature  beyond  your  darkest  reckoning. — 
GLADSTONE. 

Lost!  Somewhere  between  sunrise  and  sunset, 
two  golden  hours,  each  set  with  sixty  diamond  min- 
utes. No  reward  is  offered,  for  they  are  gone  for- 
ever.— HORACE  MANN. 

HAT  is  the    price  of  that 
book?"   at  length  asked   a 
man    who    had    been    daw- 
dling   for   an    hour   in    the 
front     store     of     Benjamin 
Franklin's  newspaper  estab- 
lishment.    "  One  dollar,"    replied   the   clerk. 
"One   dollar,"   echoed  the   lounger;   "can't 
70 


SPARE-MOMENT  POSSIBILITIES    7* 

you  take  less  than  that?"  "One  dollar  is 
the  price,"  was  the  answer. 

The  would-be  purchaser  looked  over  the 
books  on  sale  a  while  longer,  and  then  in- 
quired :  "  Is  Mr.  Franklin  in  ?  "  "  Yes,"  said 
the  clerk,  "  he  is  very  busy  in  the  press-room." 
"  Well,  I  want  to  see  him,"  persisted  the  man. 
The  proprietor  was  called,  and  the  stranger 
asked:  "What  is  the  lowest,  Mr.  Franklin, 
that  you  can  take  for  that  book?"  "One 
dollar  and  a  quarter,"  was  the  prompt  re- 
joinder. "  One  dollar  and  a  quarter !  Why, 
your  clerk  asked  me  only  a  dollar  just  now." 
"  True,"  said  Franklin,  "  and  I  could  have 
better  afforded  to  take  a  dollar  than  to  leave 
my  work." 

The  man  seemed  surprised ;  but,  wishing  to 
end  a  parley  of  his  own  seeking,  he  de- 
manded :  "  Well,  come  now,  tell  me  your  low- 
est price  for  this  book."  "  One  dollar  and  a 
half,"  replied  Franklin.  "  A  dollar  and  a 
half!  Why,  you  offered  it  yourself  for  a  dol- 
lar and  a  quarter."  "  Yes,"  said  Franklin 
coolly,  "and  I  could  better  have  taken  that 
price  then  than  a  dollar  and  a  half  now." 

The  man  silently  laid  the  money  on  the 
counter,  took  his  book,  and  left  the  store, 
having  received  a  salutary  lesson  from  a  mas- 


72       PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

ter  in  the  art  of  transmuting*  time,  at  will,  into 
either  wealth  or  wisdom. 

Time-wasters  are  everywhere. 

On  the  floor  of  the  gold- working  room,  in 
the  United  States  Mint  at  Philadelphia,  there 
is  a  wooden  lattice-work  which  is  taken  up 
when  the  floor  is  swept,  and  the  fine  particles 
of  gold-dust,  thousands  of  dollars  yearly,  are 
thus  saved.  So  every  successful  man  has  a 
kind  of  network  to  catch  "the  raspings  and 
parings  of  existence,  those  leavings  of  days 
and  wee  bits  of  hours "  which  most  people 
sweep  into  the  waste  of  life.  He  who  hoards 
and  turns  to  account  all  odd  minutes,  half 
hours,  unexpected  holidays,  gaps  "  between 
times,"  and  chasms  of  waiting  for  unpunctual 
persons,  achieves  results  which  astonish 
those  who  have  not  mastered  this  most  'valua- 
ble secret. 

"All  that  I  have  accomplished,  expect  to, 
or  hope  to  accomplish,"  said  Elihu  Burritt, 
"  has  been  and  will  be  by  that  plodding,  pa- 
tient, persevering  process  of  accretion  which 
builds  the  ant-heap — particle  by  particle, 
thought  by  thought,  fact  by  fact.  And  if  ever 
I  was  actuated  by  ambition,  its  highest  and 
warmest  aspiration  reached  no  further  than 
the  hope  to  set  before  the  young  men  of  my 


SPARE-MOMENT  POSSIBILITIES    73 

country  an  example  in  employing  those  inval- 
uable fragments  of  time  called  moments." 

"  I  have  been  wondering  how  Ned  con- 
trived to  monopolize  all  the  talents  of  the 
family/'  said  a  brother,  found  in  a  brown 
study  after  listening  to  one  of  Burke's 
speeches  in  Parliament ;  "  but  then  I  remem- 
ber; when  we  were  at  play,  he  was  always  at 
work." 

The  days  come  to  us  like  friends  in  dis- 
guise, bringing  priceless  gifts  from  an  unseen 
hand;  but,  if  we  do  not  use  them,  they  are 
borne  silently  away,  never  to  return.  Each 
successive  morning  new  gifts  are  brought, 
but  if  we  failed  to  accept  those  that  were 
brought  yesterday  and  the  day  before,  we  be- 
come less  and  less  able  to  turn  them  to  ac- 
count, until  the  ability  to  appreciate  and  util- 
ize them  is  exhausted.  Wisely  was  it  said 
that  lost  wealth  may  be  regained  by  industr* 
and  economy,  lost  knowledge  by  study,  lost 
health  by  temperance  and  medicine,  but  lost 
time  is  gone  forever. 

"  Oh,  it's  only  five  minutes  or  ten  minutes 
till  meal-time ;  there's  no  time  to  do  anything 
now,"  is  one  of  the  commonest  expressions 
heard  in  the  family.  But  what  monuments 
have  been  built  up  by  poor  boys  with  no 


74       PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

chance,  out  of  broken  fragments  of  time 
which  many  of  us  throw  away!  The  very 
hours  you  have  wasted,  if  improved,  might 
have  insured  your  success. 

Marion  Harland  has  accomplished  wonders, 
and  she  has  been  able  to  do  this  by  economiz- 
ing the  minutes  to  shape  her  novels  and  news- 
paper articles,  when  her  children  were  in  bed 
and  whenever  she  could  get  a  spare  minute. 
Though  she  has  done  so  much,  yet  all  her  life 
has  been  subject  to  interruptions  which  would 
have  discouraged  most 'women  from  attempt- 
ing anything  outside  their  regular  family 
duties.  She  has  glorified  the  commonplace 
as  few  other  women  have  done.  Harriet 
Beecher  Stowe,  too,  wrote  her  great  master^ 
piece,  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  in  the  midst 
of  pressing  household  cares.  Beecher  read 
Froude's  "  England  "  a  little  each  day  while  he 
had  to  wait  for  dinner.  Longfellow  trans- 
lated the  "  Inferno  "  by  snatches  of  ten  min- 
utes a  day,  while  waiting  for  his  coffee  to 
boil,  persisting  for  years  until  the  work  was 
done. 

Hugh  Miller,  while  working  hard  as  a 
stone-mason,  found  time  to  read  scientific 
books,  and  write  the  lessons  learned  from  the 
blocks  of  stone  he  handled. 


SPARE-MOMENT   POSSIBILITIES    75 

Madame  de  Genlis,  when  companion  of  the 
future  queen  of  France,  composed  several  of 
her  charming  volumes  while  waiting  for  the 
princess  to  whom  she  gave  her  daily  lessons. 
Burns  wrote  many  of  his  most  beautiful 
poems  while  working  on  a  farm.  The  author 
of  "  Paradise  Lost "  was  a  teacher,  Secretary 
of  the  Commonwealth,  Secretary  of  the  Lord 
Protector,  and  had  to  write  his  sublime  poetry 
whenever  he  could  snatch  a  few  minutes  from 
a  busy  life.  John  Stuart  Mill  did  much  of  his 
best  work  as  a  writer  while  a  clerk  in  the 
East  India  House.  Galileo  was  a  surgeon, 
yet  to  the  improvement  of  his  spare  moments 
the  world  owes  some  of  its  greatest  discov- 
eries. 

If  a  genius  like  Gladstone  carried  through 
life  a  little  book  in  his  pocket  lest  an  unex- 
pected spare  moment  slip  from  his  grasp, 
what  should  we  of  common  abilities  not  re- 
sort to,  to  save  the  precious  moments  from 
oblivion?  What  a  rebuke  is  such  a  life  to  the 
thousands  of  young  men  and  women  who 
throw  away  whole  months  and  even  years  of 
that  which  the  "  Grand  Old  Man  "  hoarded  up 
even  to  the  smallest  fragments !  Many  a  great 
man  has  snatched  his  reputation  from  odd  bits 
of  time  which  others,  who  wonder  at  their 


76       PUSHING  TO  THE   FRONT 

failure  to  get  on,  throw  away.  In  Dante's 
time  nearly  every  literary  man  in  Italy  was  a 
hard-working  merchant,  physician,  statesman, 
judge,  or  soldier. 

While  Michael  Faraday  was  employed 
binding  books,  he  devoted  all  his  leisure  to 
experiments.  At  one  time  he  wrote  to  a 
friend,  "Time  is  all  I  require.  Oh,  that  I 
could  purchase  at  a  cheap  rate  some  of  our 
modern  gentlemen's  spare  hours — nay,  days." 

Oh,  the  power  of  ceaseless  industry  to  per- 
form miracles! 

Alexander  von  Humboldt's  days  were  so 
occupied  with  his  business  that  he  had  to  pur- 
sue his  scientific  labors  in  the  night  or  early 
morning,  while  others  were  asleep. 

One  hour  a  day  withdrawn  from  frivolous 
pursuits  and  profitably  employed  would  en- 
able any  man  of  ordinary  capacity  to  master 
a  complete  science.  One  hour  a  day  would 
in  ten  years  make  an  ignorant  man  a  well- 
informed  man.  It  would  earn  enough  to  pay 
for  two  daily  and  two  weekly  papers,  two 
leading  magazines,  and  at  least  a  dozen  good 
books.  In  an  hour  a  day  a  boy  or  girl  could 
read  twenty  pages  thoughtfully — over  seven 
thousand  pages,  or  eighteen  large  volumes  in  a 
year.  An  hour  a  day  might  make  all  the  dif- 


SPARE-MOMENT  POSSIBILITIES    77 

ference  between  bare  existence  and  useful, 
happy  living.  An  hour  a  day  might  make — 
nay,  has  made — an  unknown  man  a  famous 
one,  a  useless  man  a  benefactor  to  his  race. 
Consider,  then,  the  mighty  possibilities  of  two 
— four — yes,  six  hours  a  day  that  are,  on  the 
average,  thrown  away  by  young  men  and 
women  in  the  restless  desire  for  fun  and  di- 
version ! 

Every  young  man  should  have  a  hobby  to 
occupy  his  leisure  hours,  something  useful  to 
which  he  can  turn  with  delight.  It  might  be 
in  line  with  his  work  or  otherwise,  only  his 
heart  must  be  in  it. 

If  one  chooses  wisely,  the  study,  research, 
and  occupation  that  a  hobby  confers  will 
broaden  character  and  transform  the  home. 

"  He  has  nothing  to  prevent  him  but  too 
much  idleness,  which,  I  have  observed,"  says 
Burke,  "  fills  up  a  man's  time  much  more 
completely  and  leaves  him  less  his  own  mas- 
ter, than  any  sort  of  employment  whatsoever." 

Some  boys  will  pick  up  a  good  education  in 
the  odds  and  ends  of  time  which  others  care- 
lessly throw  away,  as  one  man  saves  a  for- 
tune by  small  economies  which  others  disdain 
to  practise.  What  young  man  is  too  busy  to 
get  an  hour  a  day  for  self-improvement? 


78       PUSHING  TO  THE   FRONT 

Charles  C.  Frost,  the  celebrated  shoemaker  of 
Vermont,  resolved  to  devote  one  hour  a  day 
to  study.  He  became  one  of  the  most  noted 
mathematicians  in  the  United  States,  and  also 
gained  an  enviable  reputation  in  other  depart- 
ments of  knowledge.  John  Hunter,  like  Na- 
poleon, allowed  himself  but  four  hours  of 
sleep.  It  took  Professor  Owen  ten  years  to 
arrange  and  classify  the  specimens  in  Com- 
parative Anatomy,  over  twenty-four  thousand 
in  number,  which  Hunter's  industry  had  col- 
lected. What  a  record  for  a  boy  who  began 
his  studies  while  working  as  a  carpenter! 

John  Q.  Adams  complained  bitterly  when 
robbed  of  his  time  by  those  who  had  no  right 
to  it.  An  Italian  scholar  put  over  his  door 
the  inscription :  "  Whoever  tarries  here  must 
join  in  my  labors."  Carlyle,  Tennyson, 
Browning,  and  Dickens  signed  a  remonstrance 
against  organ-grinders  who  disturbed  their 
work. 

Many  of  the  greatest  men  of  history  earned 
their  fame  outside  of  their  regular  occupa- 
tions in'  odd  bits  of  time  which  most  people 
squander. /  Spenser  made  his  reputation  in 
his  spare  time  while  Secretary  to  the  Lord 
beputy  of  Ireland.  Sir  John  Lubbock's  fame 
rests  on  his  prehistoric  studies,  prosecuted 


SPARE-MOMENT   POSSIBILITIES    79 

outside  of  his  busy  banking-hours.  Southey, 
seldom  idle  for  a  minute,  wrote  a  hundred 
volumes.  Hawthorne's  note-book  shows  that 
lie  never  let  a  chance  thought  or  circumstance 
escape  him.  Franklin  was  a  tireless  worker, 
He  crowded  his  meals  and  sleep  into  as  small 
compass  as  possible  so  that  he  might  gain 
time  for  study.  When  a  child,  he  became  im- 
patient of  his  father's  long  grace  at  table,  and 
asked  him  if  he  could  not  say  grace  over  a 
whole  cask  once  for  all,  and  save  time.  He 
wrote  some  of  his  best  productions  on  ship- 
board, such  as  his  "  Improvement  of  Naviga- 
tion "  and  "  Smoky  Chimneys." 

What  a  lesson  there  is  in  Raphael's  brief 
thirty-seven  years  to  those  who  plead  "  no 
time"  as  an  excuse  for  wasted  lives! 

Great  men  have  ever  been  misers  of  mo- 
ments. Cicero  said:  "What  others  give  to 
public  shows  and  entertainments,  nay,  even 
to  mental  and  bodily  rest,  I  give  to  the  study 
of  philosophy."  Lord  Bacon's  fame  springs 
from  the  work  of  his  leisure  hours  while 
Chancellor  of  England.  During  an  interview 
with  a  great  monarch,  Goethe  suddenly  ex- 
cused himself,  went  into  an  adjoining  room 
and  wrote  down  a  thought  for  his  "  Faust," 
lest  it  should  be  forgotten.  Sir  Humphry 


8o      PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

Davy  achieved  eminence  in  spare  moments 
in  an  attic  of  an  apothecary's  shop.  Pope 
would  often  rise  in  the  night  to  write  out 
thoughts  that  would  not  come  during  the  busy 
day.  Grote  wrote  his  matchless  "  History  of 
Greece  "  during  the  hours  of  leisure  snatched 
from  his  duties  as  a  banker. 

George  Stephenson  seized  the  moments  as 
though  they  were  gold.  He  educated  himself 
and  did  much  of  his  best  work  during  his 
spare  moments.  He  learned  arithmetic  dur- 
ing the  night  shifts  when  he  was  an  engineer. 
Mozart  would  not  allow  a  moment  to  slip  by 
unimproved.  He  would  not  stop  his  work 
long  enough  to  sleep,  and  would  sometimes 
write  two  whole  nights  and  a  day  without  in- 
termission. He  wrote  his  famous  "  Requiem  " 
on  his  death-bed. 

Caesar  said :  "  Under  my  tent  in  the  fierc- 
est struggle  of  war  I  have  always  found  time 
to  think  of  many  other  things."  He  was  once 
shipwrecked,  and  had  to  swim  ashore ;  but  he 
carried  with  him  the  manuscript  of  his  "  Com- 
mentaries," upon  which  he  was  at  work  when 
the  ship  went  down. 

Dr.  Mason  Good  translated  "  Lucretius " 
while  riding  to  visit  his  patients  in  London. 
Dr.  Darwin  composed  most  of  his  works  by 


SPARE-MOMENT   POSSIBILITIES    81 

writing  his  thoughts  on  scraps  of  paper  wher- 
ever he  happened  to  be.  Watt  learned  chem- 
istry and  mathematics  while  working  at  his 
trade  of  a  mathematical  instrument-maker. 
Henry  Kirke  White  learned  Greek  while 
walking  to  and  from  the  lawyer's  office  where 
he  was  studying.  Dr.  Burney  learned  Italian 
and  French  on  horseback.  Matthew  Hale 
wrote  his  "  Contemplations  "  while  traveling 
on  his  circuit  as  judge. 

The  present  time  is  the  raw  material  out 
of  which  we  make  whatever  we  will.  Do  not 
brood  over  the  past,  or  dream  of  the  future, 
but  seize  the  instant  and  get  your  lesson  from 
the  hour.  The  man  is  yet  unborn  who  rightly 
measures  and  fully  realizes  the  value  of  an 
hour.  As  Fenelon  says,  God  never  gives  but 
one  moment  at  a  time,  and  does  not  give  a 
second  until  he  withdraws  the  first. 

Lord  Brougham  could  not  bear  to  lose  a 
moment,  yet  he  was  so  systematic  that  he  al- 
ways seemed  to  have  more  leisure  than  many 
who  did  not  accomplish  a  tithe  of  what  he 
did.  He  achieved  distinction  in  politics,  law, 
science,  and  literature. 

Dr.  Johnson  wrote  "  Rasselas  "  in  the  even- 
ings of  a  single  week,  in  order  to  meet  the 
expenses  of  his  mother's  funeral. 


82       PUSHING  TO  THE   FRONT 

Lincoln  studied  law  during  his  spare  hours 
while  surveying,  and  learned  the  common 
branches  unaided  while  tending  store.  Mrs. 
Somerville  learned  botany  and  astronomy  and 
wrote  books  while  her  neighbors  were  gossip- 
ing and  idling.  At  eighty  she  published 
"  Molecular  and  Microscopical  Science." 

The  worst  of  a  lost  hour  is  not  so  much  in 
the  wasted  time  as  in  the  wasted  power.  Idle- 
ness rusts  the  nerves  and  makes  the  muscles 
creak.  Work  has  system,  laziness  has  none. 

President  Quincy  never  went  to  bed  until 
he  had  laid  his  plans  for  the  next  day. 

Dalton's  industry  was  the  passion  of  his 
life.  He  made  and  recorded  over  two  hun- 
dred thousand  meteorological  observations. 

In  factories  for  making  cloth  a  single 
broken  thread  ruins  a  whole  web ;  it  is  traced 
back  to  the  girl  who  made  the  blunder  and 
the  loss  is  deducted  from  her  wages.  But 
who  shall  pay  for  the  broken  threads  in  life's 
great  web  ?  We  cannot  throw  back  and  forth 
an  empty  shuttle;  threads  of  some  kind  fol- 
low every  movement  as  we  weave  the  web  of 
our  fate.  It  may  be  a  shoddy  thread  of  wasted 
hours  or  lost  opportunities  that  will  mar  the 
fabric  and  mortify  the  workman  forever;  or 
it  may  be  a  golden  thread  which  will  add  to 


SPARE-MOMENT  POSSIBILITIES    83 

its  beauty  and  luster.  We  cannot  stop  the 
shuttle  or  pull  out  the  unfortunate  thread 
which  stretches  across  the  fabric,  a  perpetual 
witness  of  our  folly. 

No  one  is  anxious  about  a  young  man  while 
he  is  busy  in  useful  work.  But  where  does 
he  eat  his  lunch  at  noon  ?  Where  does  he  go 
when  he  leaves  his  boarding-house  at  night? 
What  does  he  do  after  supper?  Where  does 
he  spend  his  Sundays  and  holidays?  The  way 
he  uses  his  spare  moments  reveals  his  char- 
acter. The  great  majority  of  youths  who  go 
to  the  bad  are  ruined  after  supper.  Most  of 
those  who  climb  upward  to  honor  and  fame 
devote  their  evenings  to  study  or  work  or 
the  society  of  those  who  can  help  and  im- 
prove them.  Each  evening  is  a  crisis  in  the 
career  of  a  young  man.  There  is  a  deep 
significance  in  the  lines  of  Whittier: — 

This  day  we  fashion  Destiny,  our  web  of  Fate  we 

spin; 
This  day  for  all  hereafter  choose  we  holiness  or 

sin. 

Time  is  money.  We  should  not  be  stingy 
or  mean  with  it,  but  we  should  not  throw 
away  an  hour  any  more  than  we  would  throw 
away  a  dollar-bill.  Waste  of  time  means 


84      PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

waste  of  energy,  waste  of  vitality,  waste  of 
character  in  dissipation.  It  means  the  waste 
of  opportunities  which  will  never  come  back. 
Beware  how  you  kill  time,  for  all  your  future 
lives  in  it. 

"And  it  is  left  for  each,"  says  Edward 
Everett,  "by  the  cultivation  of  every  talent, 
by  watching  with  an  eagle's  eye  for  every 
chance  of  improvement,  by  redeeming  time, 
defying  temptation,  and  scorning  sensual 
pleasure,  to  make  himself  useful,  honored, 
and  happy." 


IV.    ROUND  BOYS  IN  SQUARE  HOLES 

The  high  prize  of  life,  the  crowning  fortune  of  a 
man,  is  to  be  born  with  a  bias  to  some  pursuit, 
which  finds  him  in  employment  and  happiness. — 
EMERSON. 

There  is  hardly  a  poet,  artist,  philosopher,  or  man 
of  science  mentioned  in  the  history  of  the  human 
intellect,  whose  genius  was  not  opposed  by  parents, 
guardians,  or  teachers.  In  these  cases  Nature  seem's 
to  have  triumphed  by  direct  interposition;  to  have 
insisted  on  her  darlings  having  their  rights,  and 
encouraged  disobedience,  secrecy,  falsehood,  even 
flight  from  home  and  occasional  vagabondism,  rather 
than  the  world  should  lose  what  it  cost  her  so  much 
pains  to  produce.— E.  P.  WHIFFLE. 

I  hear  a  voice  you  cannot  hear, 
Which  says,  I  must  not  stay; 

I  see  a  hand  you  cannot  see, 
Which  beckons  me  away. 

TICKELL. 

AMES  WATT,  I  never 
saw  such  an  idle  young 
fellow  as  you  are/'  said 
his  grandmother ;  "  do  take 
a  book  and  employ  your- 
self usefully.  For  the  last 
half -hour  you  have  not  spoken  a  single  word. 
Do  you  know  what  you  have  been  doing  all 
this  time?  Why,  you  have  taken  off  and  re- 


86      PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

placed,  and  taken  off  again,  the  teapot  lid,  and 
you  have  held  alternately  in  the  steam,  first 
a  saucer  and  then  a  spoon,  and  you  have 
busied  yourself  in  examining  and  collecting 
together  the  little  drops  formed  by  the  con- 
densation of  the  steam  on  the  surface  of  the 
china  and  the  silver.  Now,  are  you  not 
ashamed  to  waste  your  time  in  this  disgrace- 
ful manner  ?  " 

The  world  has  certainly  gained  much 
through  the  old  lady's  failure  to  tell  James 
how  he  could  employ  his  time  to  better  ad- 
vantage ! 

"  But  I'm  good  for  something,"  pleaded  a 
young  man  whom  a  merchant  was  about  to 
discharge  for  his  bluntness.  "You  are  good 
for  nothing  as  a  salesman,"  said  his  employer. 
*  I  am  sure  I  can  be  useful,"  said  the  youth. 
"  How?  Tell  me  how."  "  I  don't  know,  sir, 
I  don't  know."  "  Nor  do  I,"  said  the  mer- 
chant, laughing  at  the  earnestness  of  his 
clerk.  "  Only  don't  put  me  away,  sir,  don't 
put  me  away.  Try  me  at  something  besides 
selling.  I  cannot  sell;  I  know  I  cannot  sell." 
"  I  know  that,  too,"  said  the  principal ;  "  that 
is  what  is  wrong."  "  But  I  can  make  myself 
useful  somehow,"  persisted  the  young  man; 
"  I  know  I  can."  He  was  placed  in  the  count- 


ROUND  BOYS  IN  SQUARE  HOLES    87 

ing-house,  where  his  aptitude  for  figures  soon 
showed  itself,  and  in  a  few  years  he  became 
not  only  chief  cashier  in  the  large  store,  but 
an  eminent  accountant. 

You  cannot  look  into  a  cradle  and  read  the 
secret  message  traced  by  a  divine  hand  and 
wrapped  up  in  that  bit  of  clay,  any  more  than 
you  can  see  the  North  Star  in  the  magnetic 
needle.  God  has  loaded  the  needle  of  that 
young  life  so  it  will  point  to  the  star  of  its 
own  destiny;  and  though  you  may  pull  it 
around  by  artificial  advice  and  unnatural  ed- 
ucation, and  compel  it  to  point  to  the  star 
which  presides  over  poetry,  art,  law,  medi- 
cine, or  whatever  your  own  pet  calling  is  until 
you  have  wasted  years  of  a  precious  life,  yet, 
when  once  free,  the  needle  flies  back  to  its 
own  star. 

"  Rue  it  as  he  may,  repent  it  as  he  often 
does,"  says  Robert  Waters,  "the  man  of 
genius  is  drawn  by  an  irresistible  impulse  to 
the  occupation  for  which  he  was  created.  No 
matter  by  what  difficulties  surrounded,  no 
matter  how  unpromising  the  prospect,  this 
occupation  is  the  only  one  which  he  will  pur- 
sue with  interest  and  pleasure.  When  his  ef- 
forts fail  to  procure  means  of  subsistence, 
and  he  finds  himself  poor  and  neglected,  he 


88       PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

may,  like  Burns,  often  look  back  with  a  sigh 
and  think  how  much  better  off  he  would  be 
had  he  pursued  some  other  occupation,  but 
he  will  stick  to  his  favorite  pursuit  neverthe- 
less." 

Civilization  will  mark  its  highest  tide  when 
every  man  has  chosen  his  proper  work.  No 
man  can  be  ideally  successful  until  he  has 
found  his  place.  Like  a  locomotive,  he  is 
strong  on  the  track,  but  weak  anywhere  else. 
"  Like  a  boat  on  a  river,"  says  Emerson, 
"  every  boy  runs  against  obstructions  on  every 
side  but  one.  On  that  side  all  obstruction  is 
taken  away,  and  he  sweeps  serenely  over  a 
deepening  channel  into  an  infinite  sea." 

Only  a  Dickens  can  write  the  history  of 
"  Boy  Slavery,"  of  boys  whose  aspirations 
and  longings  have  been  silenced  forever  by 
ignorant  parents;  of  boys  persecuted  as  lazy, 
stupid,  or  fickle,  simply  because  they  were  out 
of  their  places;  of  square  boys  forced  into 
round  holes,  and  oppressed  because  they  did 
not  fit;  of  boys  compelled  to  pore  over  dry 
theological  books  when  the  voice  within  con- 
tinually cried.  "Law,"  "Medicine,"  "Art," 
"  Science,"  or  "  Business  " ;  of  bo>*s  tortured 
because  they  were  not  enthusiastic  in  em- 
ployments which  they  loathed,  and  against 


ROUND  BOYS  IN  SQUARE  HOLES    89 

which  every  fiber  of  their  being  was  uttering 
perpetual  protest. 

It  is  often  a  narrow  selfishness  in  a  father 
which  leads  him  to  wish  his  son  a  reproduc- 
tion of  himself.  "  You  are  trying  to  make 
that  boy  another  you.  One  is  enough,"  said 
Emerson.  John  Jacob  Astor's  father  wished 
his  son  to  be  his  successor  as  a  butcher,  but 
the  instinct  of  commercial  enterprise  was  too 
strong  in  the  future  merchant. 

Nature  never  duplicates  men.  She  breaks 
the  pattern  at  every  birth.  The  magic  com- 
bination is  never  used  but  once.  Frederick 
the  Great  was  terribly  abused  because  he  had 
a  passion  for  art  and  music  and  did  not  care 
for  military  drill.  His  father  hated  the  fine 
arts  and  imprisoned  him.  He  even  con- 
templated killing  his  son,  but  his  own  death 
placed  Frederick  on  the  throne  at  the  age  of 
twenty-eight.  This  boy,  who,  because  he  loved 
art  and  music,  was  thought  good  for  noth- 
ing, made  Prussia  one  of  the  greatest  na- 
tions of  Europe. 

How  stupid  and  clumsy  is  the  blinking 
eagle  at  perch,  but  how  keen  his  glance,  how 
steady  and  true  his  curves,  when  turning  his 
powerful  wing  against  the  clear  blue  sky! 

Ignorant  parents  compelled  the  boy  Ark- 


90       PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

wright  to  become  a  barber's  apprentice,  but 
Nature  had  locked  up  in  his  brain  a  cunning 
device  destined  to  bless  humanity  and  to  do  the 
drudgery  of  millions  of  England's  poor;  so 
he  must  needs  say  "hands  off"  even  to  his 
parents,  as  Christ  said  to  his  mother,  "Wist 
ye  not  that  I  must  be  about  my  Father's  busi- 
ness?" 

Galileo  was  set  apart  for  a  physician,  but 
when  compelled  to  study  anatomy  and  phy- 
siology, he  would  hide  his  Euclid  and  Arch- 
imedes and  stealthily  work  out  the  abstruse 
problems.  He  was  only  eighteen  when  he  dis- 
covered the  principle  of  the  pendulum  in  a 
lamp  left  swinging  in  the  cathedral  at  Pisa. 
He  invented  both  the  microscope  and  tele- 
scope, enlarging  knowledge  of  the  vast  and 
minute  alike. 

The  parents  of  Michael  Angelo  had  de- 
clared that  no  son  of  theirs  should  ever  fol- 
low the  discreditable  profession  of  an  artist, 
and  even  punished  him  for  covering  the  walls 
and  furniture  with  sketches ;  but  the  fire  burn- 
ing in  his  breast  was  kindled  by  the  Divine 
Artist,  and  would  not  let  him  rest  until  he 
had  immortalized  himself  in  the  architecture 
of  St.  Peter's,  in  the  marble  of  his  Moses,  and 
on  the  walls  of  the  Sistine  Chapel. 


ROUND  BOYS  IN  SQUARE  HOLES    91 

Pascal's  father  determined  that  his  son 
should  teach  the  dead  languages,  but  the  voice 
of  mathematics  drowned  every  other  call, 
haunting  the  boy  until  he  laid  aside  his  gram- 
mar for  Euclid. 

The  father  of  Joshua  Reynolds  rebuked  his 
son  for  drawing  pictures,  and  wrote  on  one: 
"  Done  by  Joshua  out  of  pure  idleness."  Yet 
this  "idle  boy"  became  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  Royal  Academy. 

Turner  was  intended  for  a  barber  in 
Maiden  Lane,  but  became  the  greatest  land- 
scape-painter of  modern  times. 

Claude  Lorraine,  the  painter,  was  appren- 
ticed to  a  pastry-cook;  Moliere,  the  author, 
to  an  upholsterer;  and  Guido,  the  famous 
painter  of  Aurora,  was  sent  to  a  music  school. 

Schiller  was  sent  to  study  surgery  in  the 
military  school  at  Stuttgart,  but  in  secret  he 
produced  his  first  play,  "  The  Robbers,"  the 
first  performance  of  which  he  had  to  witness 
in  disguise.  The  irksomeness  of  his  prison- 
like  school  so  galled  him,  and  his  longing  for 
authorship  so  allured  him,  that  he  ventured, 
penniless,  into  the  inhospitable  world  of  let- 
ters. A  kind  lady  aided  him,  and  soon  he 
produced  the  two  splendid  dramas  which 
made  him  immortal, 


92       PUSHING  TO   THE   FRONT 

The  physician  Handel  wished  his  son  to  be- 
come a  lawyer,  and  so  tried  to  discourage  his 
fondness  for  music.  But  the  boy  got  an  old 
spinet  and  practised  on  it  secretly  in  a  hay- 
loft. When  the  doctor  visited  a  brother  in 
the  service  of  the  Duke  of  Weisenfelds,  he 
took  his  son  with  him.  The  boy  wandered 
unobserved  to  the  organ  in  a  chapel,  and  soon 
had  a  private  concert  under  full  blast.  The 
duke  happened  to  hear  the  performance,  and 
wondered  who  could  possibly  combine  so 
much  melody  with  so  much  evident  unfamil- 
iarity  with  the  instrument.  The  boy  was 
brought  before  him,  and  the  duke,  instead  of 
blaming  him  for  disturbing  the  organ,  praised 
his  performance,  and  persuaded  Dr.  Handel 
to  let  his  son  follow  his  bent. 

Daniel  Defoe  had  been  a  trader,  a  soldier, 
a  merchant,  a  secretary,  a  factory  manager, 
a  commissioner's  accountant,  an  envoy,  and 
an  author  of  several  indifferent  books,  before 
he  wrote  his  masterpiece,  "  Robinson  Crusoe." 

Wilson,  the  ornithologist,  failed  in  five  dif- 
ferent professions  before  he  found  his  place. 

Erskine  spent  four  years  in  the  navy,  and 
then,  in  the  hope  of  more  rapid  promotion, 
joined  the  army.  After  serving  more  than 
two  years,  he  one  day,  out  of  curiosity,  at- 


ROUND  BOYS  IN  SQUARE  HOLES    93 

tended  a  court,  in  the  town  where  his  regiment 
was  quartered.  The  presiding  judge,  an  ac- 
quaintance, invited  Erskine  to  sit  near  him,  and 
said  that  the  pleaders  at  the  bar  were  among 
the  most  eminent  lawyers  of  Great  Britain. 
Erskine  took  their  measure  as  they  spoke, 
and  believed  he  could  excel  them.  He  at 
once  began  the  study  of  law,  in  which  he 
eventually  soon  stood  alone  as  the  greatest 
forensic  orator  of  his  country. 

A.  T.  Stewart  studied  for  the  ministry,  and 
became  a  teacher,  before  he  drifted  into  his 
proper  calling  as  a  merchant,  through  the 
accident  of  having  lent  money  to  a  friend. 
The  latter,  with  failure  imminent,  insisted 
that  his  creditor  should  take  the  shop  as  the 
only  means  of  securing  the  money. 

"Jonathan,"  said  Mr.  Chase,  when  his  son 
told  of  having  nearly  fitted  himself  for  col- 
lege, "  thou  shalt  go  down  to  the  machine- 
shop  on  Monday  morning."  It  was  many 
years  before  Jonathan  escaped  from  the  shop, 
to  work  his  way  up  to  the  position  of  a  man 
of  great  influence  as  a  United  States  Senator 
from  Rhode  Island. 

It  has  been  well  said  that  if  God  should 
commission  two  angels,  one  to  sweep  a  street 
crossing,  and  the  other  to  rule  an  empire, 


94       PUSHING  TO   THE   FRONT 

they  could  not  be  induced  to  exchange  call- 
ings. Not  less  true  is  it  that  he  who  feels  that 
God  has  given  him  a  particular  work  to  do 
can  be  happy  only  when  earnestly  engaged  in 
its  performance.  Happy  the  youth  who  finds 
the  place  which  his  dreams  have  pictured !  If 
he  does  not  fill  that  place,  he  will  not  fill  any 
to  the  satisfaction  of  himself  or  others.  Na- 
ture never  lets  a  man  rest  until  he  Las  found 
his  place.  She  haunts  him  and  drives  him 
until  all  his  faculties  give  their  consent  and 
he  falls  into  his  proper  niche.  A  parent  might 
just  as  well  decide  that  the  magnetic  needle 
will  point  to  Venus  or  Jupiter  without  trying 
it,  as  to  decide  what  profession  his  son  shall 
adopt. 

What  a  ridiculous  exhibition  a  great  truck- 
horse  would  make  on  the  race-track;  yet  this 
is  no  more  incongruous  than  the  popular  idea 
that  law,  medicine,  and  theology  are  the  only 
desirable  professions.  How  ridiculous,  too, 
for  fifty- two  per  cent,  of  our  American  coU 
lege  graduates  to  study  law!  How  many 
young  men  become  poor  clergymen  by  trying 
to  imitate  their  fathers  who  were  good  ones ; 
of  poor  doctors  and  lawyers  for  the  same 
reason!  The  country  is  full  of  men  who  are 
out  of  place,  "  disappointed,  soured,  ruined, 


ROUND  BOYS  IN  SQUARE  HOLES    95 

out  of  office,  out  of  money,  out  of  credit,  out 
of  courage,  out  at  elbows,  out  in  the  cold." 
The  fact  is,  nearly  every  college  graduate  who 
succeeds  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  pre- 
pares himself  in  school,  but  makes  himself 
after  he  is  graduated.  The  best  thing  his 
teachers  have  taught  him  is  how  to  study. 
The  moment  he  is  beyond  the  college  walls 
he  ceases  to  use  books  and  helps  which  do  not 
feed  him,  and  seizes  upon  those  that  do. 

We  must  not  jump  to  the  conclusion  that 
because  a  man  has  not  succeeded  in  what  he 
has  really  tried  to  do  with  all  his  might,  he 
cannot  succeed  at  anything.  Look  at  a  fish 
floundering  on  the  sand  as  though  he  would 
tear  himself  to  pieces.  But  look  again:  a 
huge  wave  breaks  higher  up  the  beach  and 
covers  the  unfortunate  creature.  The  mo- 
ment his  fins  feel  the  water,  he  is  himself 
again,  and  darts  like  a  flash  through  the 
waves.  His  fins  mean  something  now,  while 
before  they  beat  the  air  and  earth  in  vain,  a 
hindrance  instead  of  a  help. 

If  you  fail  after  doing  your  level  best,  ex- 
amine the  work  attempted,  and  see  if  it  really 
be  in  the  line  of  your  bent  or  power  of 
achievement.  Cowper  failed  as  a  lawyer.  He 
was  so  timid  that  he  could  not  plead  a  case, 


96       PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

but  he  wrote  some  of  our  finest  poems.  Mo- 
Here  found  that  he  was  not  adapted  to  the 
work  of  a  lawyer,  but  he  left  a  great  name  in 
literature.  Voltaire  and  Petrarch  abandoned 
the  law,  the  former  choosing  philosophy,  the 
latter,  poetry.  Cromwell  was  a  farmer  until 
forty  years  old. 

Very  few  of  us,  before  we  reach  our  teens, 
show  great  genius  or  even  remarkable  talent 
for  any  line  of  work  or  study.  The  great 
majority  of  boys  and  girls,  even  when  given 
all  the  latitude  and  longitude  heart  could  de- 
sire, find  it  very  difficult  before  their  fifteenth 
or  even  before  their  twentieth  year  to  decide 
what  to  do  for  a  living.  Each  knocks  at 
the  portals  of  the  mind,  demanding  a  won- 
derful aptitude  for  some  definite  line  of  work, 
but  it  is  not  there.  That  is  no  reason  why 
the  duty  at  hand  should  be  put  off,  or  why 
the  labor  that  naturally  falls  to  one's  lot 
should  not  be  done  well.  Samuel  Smiles  was 
trained  to  a  profession  which  was  not  to  his 
taste,  yet  he  practised  it  so  faithfully  that  it 
helped  him  to  authorship,  for  which  he  was 
well  fitted. 

Fidelity  to  the  work  or  everyday  duties  at 
hand,  and  a  genuine  feeling  of  responsibility  to 
our  parents  or  employers,  ourselves,  and  our 


ROUND  BOYS  IN  SQUARE  HOLES    97 

God,  will  eventually  bring  most  of  us  into 
the  right  niches  at  the  proper  time. 

Garfield  would  not  have  become  President 
if  he  had  not  previously  been  a  zealous 
teacher,  a  responsible  soldier,  a  conscientious 
statesman.  Neither  Lincoln  nor  Grant  started 
as  a  baby  with  a  precocity  for  the  White 
House,  or  an  irresistible  genius  for  ruling 
men.  So  no  one  should  be  disappointed  be- 
cause he  was  not  endowed  with  tremendous 
gifts  in  the  cradle.  His  business  is  to  do  the 
best  he  can  wherever  his  lot  may  be  cast,  and 
advance  at  every  honorable  opportunity  in  the 
direction  towards  which  the  inward  monitor 
points.  Let  duty  be  the  guiding-star,  and 
success  will  surely  be  the  crown,  to  the  full 
measure  of  one's  ability  and  industry. 

What  career?  What  shall  my  life's  work 
be? 

If  instinct  and  heart  ask  for  carpentry,  be  a 
carpenter;  if  for  medicine,  be  a  physician. 
With  a  firm  choice  and  earnest  work,  a  young 
man  or  woman'cannot  help  but  succeed.  But 
if  there  be  no  instinct,  or  if  it  be  weak  or 
faint,  one  should  choose  cautiously  along  the 
line  of  his  best  adaptability  and  opportunity. 
No  one  need  doubt  that  the  world  has  use 
for  him.  True  success  lies  in  acting  well  your 


98       PUSHING  TO   THE   FRONT 

part,  and  this  every  one  can  do.  Better  be 
a  first-rate  hod-carrier  than  a  second-rate  any- 
thing. 

The  world  has  been  very  kind  to  many  who 
were  once  known  as  dunces  or  blockheads, 
after  they  have  become  very  successful;  but 
it  was  very  cross  to  them  while  they  were 
struggling  through  discouragement  ar<!  mis- 
interpretation. Give  every  boy  and  girl  a  fair 
chance  and  reasonable  encouragement,  and  do 
not  condemn  them  because  of  even  a  large 
degree  of  downright  stupidity ;  for  many  so* 
called  good-for-nothing  boys,  blockheads, 
numskulls,  dullards,  or  dunces,  were  only 
boys  out  of  their  places,  round  boys  forced 
into  square  holes. 

Wellington  was  considered  a  dunce  by  his 
mother.  At  Eton  he  was  called  dull,  idle, 
slow,  and  was  about  the  last  boy  in  school 
of  whom  anything  was  expected.  He  showed 
no  talent,  and  had  no  desire  to  enter  the 
army.  His  industry  and^  perseverance  were 
his  only  redeeming  characteristics  in  the  eyes 
of  his  parents  and  teachers.  But  at  forty- 
six  he  had  defeated  the  greatest  general  liv- 
ing, except  himself. 

Goldsmith  was  the  laughing-stock  of  his 
schoolmasters.  He  was  graduated  "  Wooden 


ROUND  BOYS  IN  SQUARE  HOLES    99 

Spoon,"  a  college  name  for  a  dunce.  He 
tried  to  enter  a  class  in  surgery,  but  was  re- 
jected. He  was  driven  to  literature.  Gold- 
smith found  himself  totally  unfit  for  the  duties 
of  a  physician ;  but  who  else  could  have  writ- 
ten the  "  Vicar  of  Wakefield "  or  the  "  De- 
serted Village  "  ?  Dr.  Johnson  found  him 
very  poor  and  about  to  be  arrested  for  debt. 
He  made  Goldsmith  give  him  the  manuscript 
of  the  "  Vicar  of  Wakefield,"  sold  it  to  the 
publishers,  and  paid  the  debt.  This  manu- 
script made  its  author  famous. 

Robert  Give  bore  the  name  of  "  dunce  " 
and  "  reprobate  "  at  school,  but  at  thirty-two, 
with  three  thousand  men,  he  defeated  fifty 
thousand  at  Plassey  and  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  British  Empire  in  India.  Sir  Walter 
Scott  was  called  a  blockhead  by  his  teacher. 
When  Byron  happened  to  get  ahead  of  his 
class,  the  master  would  say:  "Now,  Jordie, 
let  me  see  how  soon  you  will  be  at  the  foot 
again." 

Young  Linnseus  was  called  by  his  teachers 
almost  a  blockhead.  Not  finding  him  fit  for 
the  church,  his  parents  sent  him  to  college  to 
study  medicine.  But  the  silent  teacher  within, 
greater  and  wiser  than  all  others,  led  him  to 
the  fields;  and  neither  sickness,  misfortune, 


:oo    PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

nor  poverty  could  drive  him  from  the  study 
of  botany,  the  choice  of  his  heart,  and  he  be- 
came the  greatest  botanist  of  his  age. 

Richard  B.  Sheridan's  mother  tried  in  vain 
to  teach  him  the  most  elementary  studies.  The 
mother's  death  aroused  slumbering  talents,  as 
has  happened  in  hundreds  of  cases,  and  he  be- 
came one  of  the  most  brilliant  men  of  his 
age. 

Samuel  Drew  was  one  of  the  dullest  and 
most  listless  boys  in  his  neighborhood,  yet 
after  an  accident  by  which  he  nearly  lost  his 
life,  and  after  the  death  of  his  brother,  he 
became  so  studious  and  industrious  that  he 
could  not  bear  to  lose  a  moment.  He  read 
at  every  meal,  using  all  the  time  he  could  get 
for  self-improvement.  He  said  that  Paine's 
"  Age  of  Reason  "  made  him  an  author,  for 
it  was  by  his  attempt  to  refute  its  arguments 
that  he  was  first  known  as  a  strong,  vigorous 
writer. 

It  has  been  well  said  that  no  man  ever 
made  an  ill  figure  who  understood  his  own 
talents,  nor  a  good  one  who  mistook  them. 


V.   WHAT   CAREER? 

Brutes  find  out  where  their  talents  lie; 

A  bear  will  not  attempt  to  fly, 

A   foundered   horse   will   oft   debate 

Before  he  tries  a  five-barred  gate. 

A  dog  by  instinct  turns  aside 

Who  sees  the  ditch  too  deep  and  wide. 

But  man  we  find  the  only  creature- 

Who,  led  by  folly,  combats  nature; 

Who,  when  she  loudly  cries — Forbear! 

With  obstinacy  fixes  there; 

And  where  his  genius  least  inclines, 

Absurdly  bends  his  whole  designs. 

SWIFT. 

The  crowning  fortune  of  a  man  is  to  be  born  to 
some  pursuit  which  finds  him  in  employment  and 
happiness,  whether  it  be  to  make  baskets,  or  broad- 
swords, or  canals,  or  statues,  or  songs. — EMERSON. 

Whatever  you  are  by  nature,  keep  to  it;  never 
desert  your  line  of  talent.  Be  what  nature  intended 
you  for,  and  you  will  succeed ;  be  anything  else,  and 
you  will  be  ten  thousand  times  worse  than  nothing. 
— SYDNEY  SMITH. 

VERY  man  has  got  a  Fort," 
said  Artemus  Ward.  "It's 
some  men's  fort  to  do  one 
thing,  and  some  other  men's 
fort  to  do  another,  while 
there  is  numeris  shiftless 

critters  goin'  round  loose  whose  fort  is  not 

to  do  nothin'. 

101 


102     PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

"Twice  I've  endevered  to  do  things  which 
they  wasn't  my  Fort.  The  first  time  was 
when  I  undertook  to  lick  a  owdashus  cuss 
who  cut  a  hole  in  my  tent  and  krawld  threw. 
Sez  I,  '  My  jentle  sir,  go  out,  or  I  shall  fall 
onto  you  putty  hevy.'  Sez  he,  '  Wade  in,  Old 
Wax  Figgers,'  whereupon  I  went  for  him, 
but  he  cawt  me  powerful  on  the  hed  and 
knockt  me  threw  the  tent  into  a  cow  pastur. 
He  pursood  the  attack  and  flung  me  into  a 
mud  puddle.  As  I  aroze  and  rung  out  my 
drencht  garmints,  I  concluded  fitin  was  n't 
my  fort. 

"  Tie  now  rize  the  curtain  upon  seen  2nd. 
It  is  rarely  seldum  that  I  seek  consola- 
tion in  the  Flowin  Bole.  But  in  a  certain 
town  in  Injianny  in  the  Faul  of  18 — ,  my 
orgin  grinder  got  sick  with  the  fever  and 
died.  I  never  felt  so  ashamed  in  my  life,  and 
I  thought  I'd  hist  in  a  few  s wallers  of  suthin 
strengthnin.  Konsequents  was,  I  histed  so 
much  I  didn't  zackly  know  whereabouts  I 
was.  I  turned  my  livin  wild  beasts  of  Pray 
loose  into  the  streets,  and  split  all  my  wax- 
works. 

"  I  then  Bet  I  cood  play  hoss.  So  I  hitched 
myself  to  a  kanawl  bote,  there  bein  two  other 
hosses  behind  and  anuther  ahead  of  me. 


WHAT   CAREER?  103 

But  the  bosses  bein  onused  to  such  a  ar- 
rangemunt,  begun  to  kick  and  squeal  and 
rair  up.  Konsequents  was,  I  was  kicked  vi- 
lently  in  the  stummuck  and  back,  and  pres- 
ently, I  found  myself  in  the  kanawl  with  the 
other  bosses,  kikin  and  yellin  like  a  tribe  of 
Cusscaroorus  savajis.  I  was  rescood,  and  as 
I  was  bein  carried  to  the  tavern  on  a  hem- 
lock bored  I  sed  in  a  feeble  voice,  *  Boys, 
playin  boss  isn't  my  Fort/ 

"  Moral :  Never  don't  do  nothin  which 
isn't  your  Fort,  for  ef  you  do  you'll  find  your- 
self splashin  round  in  the  kanawl,  figgera- 
tlvely  speakin" 

The  following  advertisement,  which  ap- 
peared day  after  day  in  a  Western  paper, 
did  not  bring  a  single  reply: — 

"  Wanted. — Situation  by  a  Practical 
Printer,  who  is  competent  to  take  charge  of 
any  department  in  a  printing  and  publishing 
house.  Would  accept  a  professorship  in  any 
of  the  academies.  Has  no  objection  to  teach 
ornamental  painting  and  penmanship,  geom- 
etry, trigonometry,  and  many  other  sciences. 
Has  had  some  experience  as  a  lay  preacher. 
Would  have  no  objection  to  form  a  small 
class  of  young  ladies  and  gentlemen  to  in- 
struct them  in  the  higher  branches.  To  a 


104     PUSHING    TO   THE   FRONT 

dentist  or  chiropodist  he  would  be  invaluable ; 
or  he  would  cheerfully  accept  a  position  as 
bass  or  tenor  singer  in  a  choir." 

At  length  there  appeared  this  addition  to 
the  notice: — 

"  P.  S.  Will  accept  an  offer  to  saw  and 
split  wood  at  less  than  the  usual  rates."  This 
secured  a  situation  at  once,  and  the  adver- 
tisement was  seen  no  more. 

Your  talent  is  your  call.  Your  legitimate 
destiny  speaks  in  your  character.  If  you  have 
found  your  place,  your  occupation  has  the  con- 
sent of  every  faculty  of  your  being. 

If  possible,  choose  that  occupation  which 
focuses  the  largest  amount  of  your  experience 
and  tastes.  You  will  then  not  only  have  a 
congenial  vocation,  but  also  will  utilize  largely 
your  skill  and  business  knowledge,  which  is 
your  true  capital. 

Follow  your  bent.  You  cannot  long  fight 
successfully  against  your  aspirations.  Par- 
ents, friends,  or  misfortune  may  stifle  and 
suppress  the  longings  of  the  heart,  by  com- 
pelling you  to  perform  unwelcome  tasks ;  but, 
like  a  volcano,  the  inner  fire  will  burst  the 
crusts  which  confine  it  and  will  pour  forth  its 
pent-up  genius  in  eloquence,  in  song,  in  art, 
or  in  some  favorite  industry.  Beware  of  "  a 


WHAT   CAREER?  105 

talent  which  you  cannot  hope  to  practise  in 
perfection."  Nature  hates  all  botched  and 
half -finished  work,  and  will  pronounce  her 
curse  upon  it. 

Better  be  the  Napoleon  of  bootblacks,  or 
the  Alexander  of  chimney-sweeps,  let  us  say 
with  Matthew  Arnold,  than  a  shallow-brained 
attorney  who,  like  necessity,  knows  no  law. 

Half  the  world  seems  to  have  found  un- 
congenial occupation,  as  though  the  human 
race  had  been  shaken  up  together  and  ex- 
changed places  in  the  operation.  A  servant 
girl  is  trying  to  teach,  and  a  natural  teacher 
is  tending  store.  Good  farmers  are  murder- 
ing the  law,  while  Choates  and  Websters  are 
running  down  farms,  each  tortured  by  the 
consciousness  of  unfulfilled  destiny.  Boys 
are  pining  in  factories  who  should  be  wres- 
tling with  Greek  and  Latin,  and  hundreds 
are  chafing  beneath  unnatural  loads  in  col- 
lege who  should  be  on  the  farm  or  before 
the  mast.  Artists  are  spreading  "  daubs  "  on 
canvas  who  should  be  whitewashing  board 
fences.  Behind  counters  stand  clerks  who 
hate  the  yard-stick  and  neglect  their  work 
to  dream  of  other  occupations.  A  good 
shoemaker  writes  a  few  verses  for  the  village 
paper,  his  friends  call  him  a  poet,  and  the 


io6    PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

last,  with  which  he  is  familiar,  is  abandoned 
for  the  pen,  which  he  uses  awkwardly.  Other 
shoemakers  are  cobbling  in  Congress,  while 
statesmen  are  pounding  shoe-lasts.  Laymen 
are  murdering  sermons  while  Beechers  and 
Whitefields  are  failing  as  merchants,  and 
people  are  wondering  what  can  be  the  cause 
of  empty  pews.  A  boy  who  is  always  mak- 
ing something  with  tools  is  railroaded 
through  the  university  and  started  on  the 
road  to  inferiority  in  one  of  the  "three  hon- 
orable professions."  Real  surgeons  are  han- 
dling the  meat-saw  and  cleaver,  while  butch- 
ers are  amputating  human  limbs.  How  for- 
tunate that — 

"There's  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends, 
Rough-hew  them  how  we  will" 

"He  that  hath  a  trade,"  says  Franklin, 
"hath  an  estate;  and  he  that  hath  a  calling 
hath  a  place  of  profit  and  honor.  A  plow- 
man on  his  legs  is  higher  than  a  gentleman 
on  his  knees." 

A  man's  business  does  more  to  make  him 
than  anything  else.  It  hardens  his  muscles, 
strengthens  his  body,  quickens  his  blood, 
sharpens  his  mind,  corrects  his  judgment, 
wakes  up  his  inventive  genius,  puts  his  wits 


WHAT   CAREER?  107 

to  work,  starts  him  on  the  race  of  life, 
arouses  his  ambition,  makes  him  feel  that  he 
is  a  man  and  must  fill  a  man's  shoes,  do  a 
man's  work,  bear  a  man's  part  in  life,  and 
show  himself  a  man  in  that  part.  No  man 
feels  himself  a  man  who  is  not  doing  a  man's 
business.  A  man  without  employment  is  not 
a  man.  He  does  not  prove  by  his  works  that 
he  is  a  man.  A  hundred  and  fifty  pounds 
of  bone  and  muscle  do  not  make  a  man.  A 
good  cranium  full  of  brains  is  not  a  man. 
The  bone  and  muscle  and  brain  must  know 
how  to  do  a  man's  work,  think  a  man's 
thoughts,  mark  out  a  man's  path,  and  bear  a 
man's  weight  of  character  and  duty  before 
they  constitute  a  man. 

Go-at-it-iveness  is  the  first  requisite  for 
success.  Stick-to-it-iveness  is  the  second. 
Under  ordinary  circumstances,  and  with 
practical  common  sense  to  guide  him,  one 
who  has  these  requisites  will  not  fail. 

Don't  wait  for  a  higher  position  or  a 
larger  salary.  Enlarge  the  position  you  al- 
ready occupy ;  put  originality  of  method  into 
it.  Fill  it  as  it  never  was  filled  before.  Be 
more  prompt,  more  energetic,  more  thor- 
ough, more  polite  than  your  predecessor  or 
fellow  workmen.  Study  your  business,  de- 


io8     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

vise  new  modes  of  operation,  be  able  to  give 
your  employer  points.  The  art  lies  not  in 
giving  satisfaction  merely,  not  in  simply 
filling  your  place,  but  in  doing  better  than 
was  expected,  in  surprising  your  employer  J 
and  the  reward  will  be  a  better  place  and  a 
larger  salary 

When  out  of  work,  take  the  first  respect- 
able job  that  offers,  heeding  not  the  dispro- 
portion between  your  faculties  and  your  task. 
If  you  put  your  manhood  into  your  labor, 
you  will  soon  be  given  something  better 
to  do. 

This  question  of  a  right  aim  in  life  has 
become  exceedingly  perplexing  in  our  com- 
plicated age.  It  is  not  a  difficult  problem  to 
solve  when  one  is  the  son  of  a  Zulu  or  the 
daughter  of  a  Bedouin.  The  condition  of  the 
savage  hardly  admits  of  but  one  choice ;  but  as 
one  rises  higher  in  the  scale  of  civilization  and 
creeps  nearer  to  the  great  Centers  of  activity, 
the  difficulty  of  a  correct  decision  increases 
with  its  importance.  In  proportion  as  one  is 
hard  pressed  in  competition  is  it  of  the  stern- 
est necessity  for  him  to  choose  the  right  aim, 
so  as  to  be  able  to  throw  the  whole  of  his 
energy  and  enthusiasm  into  the  struggle  for 
success.  The  dissipation  of  strength  or  hope 


WHAT   CAREER?  109 

is  fatal  to  prosperity  even  in  the  most  attrac- 
tive field. 

Gladstone  says  there  is  a  limit  to  the  work 
that  can  be  got  out  of  a  human  body,  or  a 
human  brain,  and  he  is  a  wise  man  who 
wastes  no  energy  on  pursuits  for  which  he 
is  not  fitted. 

"  Blessed  is  he  who  has  found  his  work," 
says  Carlyle.  "  Let  him  ask  no  other  blessed- 
ness. He  has  a  work — a  life  purpose;  he  has 
found  it,  and  will  follow  it." 

In  choosing  an  occupation,  do  not  ask  your- 
self how  you  can  make  the  most  money  or 
gain  the  most  notoriety,  but  choose  that  work 
which  will  call  out  all  your  powers  and  de- 
velop your  manhood  into  the  greatest  strength 
and  symmetry.  Not  money,  not  notoriety, 
not  fame  even,  but  power  is  what  you  want.  , 
Manhood  is  greater  than  wealth,  grander 
than  fame.  Character  is  greater  than  any 
career.  Each  faculty  must  be  educated,  and 
any  deficiency  in  its  training  will  appear  in 
whatever  you  do.  The  hand  must  be  edu- 
cated to  be  graceful,  steady,  and  strong.  The 
eye  must  be  educated  to  be  alert,  discrimi- 
nating, and  microscopic.  The  heart  must  be 
educated  to  be  tender^  sympathetic,  and  true. 
The  memory  must  be  drilled  for  years  in 


no     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

accuracy,  retention,  and  comprehensiveness. 
The  world  does  not  demand  that  you  be  a 
lawyer,  minister,  doctor,  farmer,  scientist,  or 
merchant;  it  does  not  dictate  what  you  shall 
do,  but  it  does  require  that  you  be  a  master 
in  whatever  you  undertake.  If  you  are  a 
master  in  your  line,  the  world  will  applaud 
you  and  all  doors  will  fly  open  to  you.  But 
it  condemns  all  botches,  abortions,  and  fail- 
ures. 

"  Whoever  is  well  educated  to  discharge 
the  duty  of  a  man,"  says  Rousseau,  "  cannot 
be  badly  prepared  to  fill  any  of  those  offices 
that  have  relation  to  him.  It  matters  little 
to  me  whether  my  pupils  be  designed  for  the 
army,  the  pulpit,  or  the  bar.  Nature  has  des- 
tined us  to  the  offices  of  human  life  ante- 
cedent to  our  destination  concerning  society. 
To  live  is  the  profession  I  would  teach  him. 
When  I  have-  done  with  him,  it  is  true  he  will 
be  neither  a  soldier,  a  lawyer,  nor  a  divine. 
Let  him  first  be  a  man.  Fortune  may  remove 
him  from  one  rank  to  another  as  she  pleases ; 
he  will  be  always  found  in  his  place." 

In  the  great  race  of  life  common  sense  has 
the  right  of  way.  Wealth,  a  diploma,  a  pedi- 
gree, talent,  genius,  without  tact  and  common 
sense,  cut  but  a  small  figure.  The  incapables 


WHAT  CAREER?  lit 

and  the  impracticables,  though  loaded  with 
diplomas  and  degrees,  are  left  behind.  Not 
what  do  you  know,  or  who  are  you,  but  what 
are  you,  what  can  you  do,  is  the  interrogation 
of  the  century. 

George  Herbert  has  well  said :  "  What  we 
are  is  much  more  to  us  than  what  we  do." 
An  aim  that  carries  in  it  the  least  element 
of  doubt  as  to  its  justice  or  honor  or  right 
should  be  abandoned  at  once.  The  art  of 
dishing  up  the  wrong  so  as  to  make  it  look 
and  taste  like  the  right  has  never  been  more 
extensively  cultivated  than  in  our  day.  It  is 
a  curious  fact  that  reason  will,  on  pressure, 
overcome  a  man's  instinct  of  right.  An  emi- 
nent scientist  has  said  that  a  man  could  soon 
reason  himself  out  of  the  instinct  of  decency 
if  he  would  only  take  pains  and  work  hard 
enough.  So  when  a  doubtful  but  attractive 
future  is  placed  before  one,  there  is  a  great 
temptation  to  juggle  with  the  wrong  until  it 
seems  the  right.  Yet  any  aim  that  is  im- 
moral carries  in  itself  the  germ  of  certain 
failure,  in  the  real  sense  of  the  word — fail- 
ure that  is  physical  and  spiritual. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  every  person  has  a 
special  adaptation  for  his  own  peculiar  part 
in  life.  A  very  few — geniuses,  we  call  them 


ii2     PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

— have  this  marked  in  an  unusual  degree,  and 
very  early  in  life. 

Madame  de  Stae'l  was  engrossed  in  polit- 
ical philosophy  at  an  age  when  other  girls 
are  dressing  dolls.  Mozart,  when  but  four 
years  old,  played  the  clavichord  and  com- 
posed minuets  and  other  pieces  still  extant. 
The  little  Chalmers,  with  solemn  air  and  ear- 
nest gestures,  would  preach  often  from  a  stool 
in  the  nursery.  Goethe  wrote  tragedies  at 
twelve,  and  Grotius  published  an  able  philo- 
sophical work  before  he  was  fifteen.  Pope 
"  lisped  in  numbers."  Ghatterton  wrote  good 
poems  at  eleven,  and  Cowley  published  a  vol- 
ume of  poetry  in  his  sixteenth  year.  Thomas 
Lawrence  and  Benjamin  West  drew  likenesses 
almost  as  soon  as  they  could  walk.  Liszt 
played  in  public  at  twelve.  Canova  made 
models  in  clay  while  a  mere  child.  Bacon 
exposed  the  defects  of  Aristotle's  philosophy 
when  but  sixteen.  Napoleon  was  at  the 
head  of  armies  when  throwing  snowballs  at 
Brienne. 

All  these  showed  their  bent  while  young, 
and  followed  it  in  active  life.  But  precocity 
is  not  common,  and,  except  in  rare  cases,  we 
must  discover  the  bias  in  our  natures,  and 
not  wait  for  the  proclivity  to  make  itself 


WHAT   CAREER?  113 

manifest.  When  found,  it  is  worth  more  to 
us  than  a  vein  of  gold. 

"I  do  not  forbid  you  to  preach,"  said  a 
Bishop  to  a  young  clergyman,  "  but  nature 
does." 

Lowell  said :  "  It  is  the  vain  endeavor  to 
make  ourselves  what  we  are  not  that  has 
strewn  history  with  so  many  broken  pur- 
poses, and  lives  left  in  the  rough." 

You  have  not  found  your  place  until  all 
your  faculties  are  roused,  and  your  whole 
nature  consents  and  approves  of  the  work 
you  are  doing;  not  until  you  are  so  enthu- 
siastic in  it  that  you  take  it  to  bed  with  you. 
You  may  be  forced  to  drudge  at  uncongenial 
toil  for  a  time,  but  emancipate  yourself  as 
soon  as  possible.  Carey,  the  "  Consecrated 
Cobbler,"  before  he  went  as  a  missionary 
said :  "  My  business  is  to  preach  the  gospel. 
I  cobble  shoes  to  pay  expenses." 

If  your  vocation  be  only  a  humble  one,  ele- 
vate it  with  more  manhood  than  others  put  into 
it.  Put  into  it  brains  and  heart  and  energy 
and  economy.  Broaden  it  by  originality  of 
methods.  Extend  it  by  enterprise  and  indus- 
try. Study  it  as  you  would  a  profession. 
Learn  everything  that  is  to  be  known  about 
it.  Concentrate  your  faculties  upon  it,  for 


114     PUSHING   TO   THE  FRONT 

the  greatest  achievements  are  reserved  for 
the  man  of  single  aim,  in  whom  no  rival 
powers  divide  the  empire  of  the  soul.  Better 
adorn  your  own  than  seek  another's  place. 

Go  to  the  bottom  of  your  business  if  you 
would  climb  to  the  top.  Nothing  is  small 
which  concerns  your  business.  Master  every 
detail.  This  was  the  secret  of  A.  T.  Stew- 
art's and  of  John  Jacob  Aster's  great  suc- 
cess. They  knew  everything  about  their 
business. 

As  love  is  the  only  excuse  for  marriage, 
and  the  only  thing  which  will  carry  one 
safely  through  the  troubles  and  vexations  of 
married  life,  so  love  for  an  occupation  is  the 
only  thing  which  will  carry  one  safely  and 
surely  through  the  troubles  which  overwhelm 
ninety-five  out  of  every  one  hundred  who 
choose  the  life  of  a  merchant,  and  very  many 
in  every  other  career. 

A  famous  Englishman  said  to  his  nephew, 
"Don't  choose  medicine,  for  we  have  never 
had  a  murderer  in  our  family,  and  the 
chances  are  that  in  your  ignorance  you  may 
kill  a  patient;  as  to  the  law,  no  prudent  man 
is  willing  to  risk  his  life  or  his  fortune  to  a 
young  lawyer,  who  has  not  only  no  experi- 
ence, but  is  generally  too  conceited  to  know 


WHAT   CAREER?  ilj 

the  risks  he  incurs  for  his  client,  who  alone 
is  the  loser;  therefore,  as  the  mistakes  of  a 
clergyman  in  doctrine  or  advice  to  his  pa- 
rishioners cannot  be  clearly  determined  in  this 
world,  I  advise  you  by  all  means  to  enter  the 
church." 

"  I  felt  that  I  was  in  the  world  to  do  some- 
thing, and  thought  I  must,"  said  Whittier, 
thus  giving  the  secret  of  his  great  power.  It 
is  the  man  who  must  enter  law,  literature, 
medicine,  the  ministry,  or  any  other  of  the 
overstocked  professions,  who  will  succeed. 
His  certain  call,  that  is  his  love  for  it,  and 
his  fidelity  to  it,  are  the  imperious  factors  of 
his  career.  If  a  man  enters  a  profession  sim- 
ply because  his  grandfather  made  a  great 
name  in  it,  or  his  mother  wants  him  to,  with 
no  love  or  adaptability  for  it,  it  were  far 
better  for  him  to  be  a  motor-man  on  an  elec- 
tric car  at  a  dollar  and  seventy-five  cents  a 
day.  In  the  humbler  work  his  intelligence 
may  make  him  a  leader ;  in  the  other  career 
he  might  do  as  much  harm  as  a  boulder  rolled 
from  its  place  upon  a  railroad  track,  a  men- 
ace to  the  next  express. 

Only  a  few  years  ago  marriage  was  the 
only  "  sphere  "  open  to  girls,  and  the  single 
woman  had  to  face  the  disapproval  of  her 


ii6     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

friends.  Lessing  said :  "  The  woman  who 
thinks  is  like  a  man  who  puts  on  rouge,  ridic- 
ulous." Not  many  years  have  elapsed  since 
the  ambitious  woman  who  ventured  to  study 
or  write  would  keep  a  bit  of  embroidery  at 
hand  to  throw  over  her  book  or  manuscript 
when  callers  entered.  Dr.  Gregory  said  to  his 
daughters:  "If  you  happen  to  have  any 
learning,  keep  it  a  profound  secret  from  the 
men,  who  generally  look  with  a  jealous  and 
malignant  eye  on  a  woman  of  great  parts  and 
a  cultivated  understanding."  Women  who 
wrote  books  in  those  days  would  deny  the 
charge  as  though  a  public  disgrace. 

All  this  has  changed,  and  what  a  change  it 
is !  As  Frances  Willard  said,  the  greatest  dis- 
covery of  the  century  is  the  discovery  of 
woman.  We  have  emancipated  her,  and  are 
opening  countless  opportunities  for  our  girls 
outside  of  marriage.  Formerly  only  a  boy 
could  choose  a  career;  now  his  sister  can  do 
the  same.  This  freedom  is  one  of  the  greatest 
glories  of  the  twentieth  century.  But  with 
freedom  comes  responsibility,  and  under  these 
changed  conditions  every  girl  should  have  a 
definite  aim. 

Dr.  Hall  says  that  the  world  has  urgent 
need  of  "girls  who  are  mother's  right  hand; 


WHAT  CAREER? 

girls  who  can  cuddle  the  little  ones  next  best 
to  mamma,  and  smooth  out  the  tangles  in 
the  domestic  skein  when  things  get  twisted; 
girls  whom  father  takes  comfort  in  for  some- 
thing better  than  beauty,  and  the  big  brothers 
are  proud  of  for  something  that  outranks  the 
ability  to  dance  or  shine  in  society.  Next,  we 
want  girls  of  sense, — girls  who  have  a  stand- 
ard of  their  own  regardless  of  conventional- 
ities, and  are  independent  enough  to  live  up 
to  it;  girls  who  simply  won't  wear  a  trailing 
dress  on  the  street  to  gather  up  microbes  and 
all  sorts  of  defilement;  girls  who  don't  wear 
a  high  hat  to  the  theater,  or  lacerate  their 
feet  and  endanger  their  health  with  high 
heels  and  corsets;  girls  who  will  wear  what 
is  pretty  and  becoming  and  snap  their  fingers 
at  the  dictates  of  fashion  when  fashion  is 
horrid  and  silly.  And  we  want  good  girls, 
— girls  who  are  sweet,  right  straight  out  from 
the  heart  to  the  lips;  innocent  and  pure  and 
simple  girls,  with  less  knowledge  of  sin  and 
duplicity  and  evil-doing  at  twenty  than  the 
pert  little  schoolgirl  of  ten  has  all  too  often. 
And  we  want  careful  girls  and  prudent  girls, 
who  think  enough  of  the  generous  father  who 
toils  to  maintain  them  in  comfort,  and  of  the 
gentle  mother  who  denies  herself  much  that 


PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

they  may  have  so  many  pretty  things,  to 
count  the  cost  and  draw  the  line  between  the 
essentials  and  non-essentials;  girls  who  strive 
to  save  and  not  to  spend;  girls  who  are  un- 
selfish and  eager  to  be  a  joy  and  a  comfort 
in  the  home  rather  than  an  expense  and  a 
useless  burden.  We  want  girls  with  hearts, 
— girls  who  are  full  of  tenderness  and  sym- 
pathy, with  tears  that  flow  for  other  people's 
ills,  and  smiles  that  light  outward  their  own 
beautiful  thoughts.  We  have  lots  of  clever 
girls,  and  brilliant  girls,  and  witty  girls.  Give 
us  a  consignment  of  jolly  girls,  warm-hearted 
and  impulsive  girls ;  kind  and  entertaining  to 
their  own  folks,  and  with  little  desire  to  shine 
in  the  garish  world.  With  a  few  such  girls 
scattered  around,  life  would  freshen  up  for 
all  of  us,  as  the  weather  does  under  the  spell 
of  summer  showers/' 


"  They  talk  about  a  woman's  sphere, 

As  though  it  had  a  limit; 
There's  not  a  place  in  earth  or  heaven, 
There's  not  a  task  to  mankind  given, 
There's  not  a  blessing  or  a  woe, 
There's  not  a  whisper,  Yes  or  No, 
There's  not  a  life,  or  death,  or  birth, 
That  has  a  feather's  weight  of  worth, 

Without  a  woman  in  it" 


WHAT  CAREER?  119 

"Bo  that  which  is  assigned  you,"  says 
Emerson,  "  and  you  cannot  hope  too  much  or 
dare  too  much.  There  is  at  this  moment  for 
you  an  utterance  brave  and  grand  as  that  of 
the  colossal  chisel  of  Phidias,  or  trowel  of  the 
Egyptians,  or  the  pen  of  Moses  or  Dante,  but 
'different  from  all  these." 

"  The  best  way  for  a  young  man  to  begin, 
who  is  without  friends  or  influence,"  said 
Russell  Sage,  "  is,  first,  by  getting  a  posi- 
tion; second,  keeping  his  mouth  shut;  third, 
observing;  fourth,  being  faithful;  fifth,  mak- 
ing his  employer  think  he  would  be  lost  in 
a  fog  without  him;  and  sixth,  being  polite." 

"  Close  application,  integrity,  attention  to 
details,  discreet  advertising,"  are  given  as  the 
four  steps  to  success  by  John  Wanamaker, 
whose  motto  is,  "  Do  the  next  thing." 

Whatever  you  do  in  life,  be  greater  than 
your  calling.  Most  people  look  upon  an  oc- 
cupation or  calling  as  a  mere  expedient  for 
earning  a  living.  What  a  mean,  narrow  view 
to  take  of  what  was  intended  for  the  great 
school  of  life,  the  great  man  developer,  the 
character-builder;  that  which  should  broaden, 
deepen,  heighten,  and  round  out  into  symme- 
try, harmony,  and  beauty  all  the  God-given 
faculties  within  us !  How  we  shrink  from 


120    PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

the  task  and  evade  the  lessons  which  were 
intended  for  the  unfolding  of  life's  great  pos- 
sibilities into  usefulness  and  power,  as  the 
sun  unfolds  into  beauty  and  fragrance  the 
petals  of  the  flower ! 

I  am  glad  to  think 

I  am  not  bound  to  make  the  world  go  round ; 
But  only  to  discover  and  to  do, 
With  cheerful  heart,  the  work  that  God  appoints, 

JEAN  INGELOW. 

'''What  shall  I  do  to  be  forever  known?' 

Thy  duty  ever! 
'This  did  full  many  who  yet  sleep  all 

unknown/ — 
Oh,  never,  never! 
Think'st  thou,  perchance,  that  they  remain 

unknown 

Whom  thou  know'st  not? 
By  angel  trumps  in  heaven  their  praise  i» 

blown, 
Divine  their  lot.*' 


VI.  CONCENTRATED  ENERGY 

This  one  thing  I  do.— ST.  PAUL. 

The  one  prudence  in  life  is  concentration;  the 
one  evil  is  dissipation ;  and  it  makes  no  difference 
whether  our  dissipations  are  coarse  or  fine.  .  .  . 
Everything  is  good  which  takes  away  one  plaything 
and  delusion  more,  and  sends  us  home  to  add  one 
stroke  of  faithful  work. — EMERSON. 

The  man  who  seeks  one  thing  in  life,  and  but  one, 
May  hope  to  achieve  it  before  life  be  done; 
But  he  who  seeks  all  things,  wherever  he  goes, 
Only  reaps  from  the  hopes  which  around  him 

he  sows, 
A  harvest  of  barren  regrets. 

OWEN  MEREDITH. 

The  longer  I  live,  the  more  deeply  am  I  convinced 
that  that  which  makes  the  difference  between  one 
man  and  another — between  the  weak  and  powerful, 
the  great  and  insignificant,  is  energy — invincible  de- 
termination— a  purpose  once  formed,  and  then  death 
or  victory.— FOWELL  BUXTON. 

HERE  was  not  enougti 
room  for  us  all  in  Frank- 
fort," said  Nathan  Mayer 
Rothschild,  in  speaking  of 
himself  and  his  four  broth- 
ers. "I  dealt  in  English 
goods.  One  great  trader  came  there,  who 
had  the  market  to  himself;  he  was  quite  the 

121 


122     PUSHING   TO   THE  FRONT 

great  man,  and  did  us  a  favor  if  he  sold  us 
goods.  Somehow  I  offended  him,  and  he  re- 
fused to  show  me  his  patterns.  This  was  on 
a  Tuesday.  I  said  to  my  father,  '  I  will  go 
to  England/  On  Thursday  I  started.  The 
nearer  I  got  to  England,  the  cheaper  goods 
were.  As  soon  as  I  got  to  Manchester,  I 
laid  out  all  my  money,  things  were  so  cheap, 
and  I  made  a  good  profit." 

"  I  hope,"  said  a  listener,  "  that  your  chil- 
dren are  not  too  fond  of  money  and  business 
to  the  exclusion  of  more  important  things. 
I  am  sure  you  would  not  wish  that." 

"  I  am  sure  I  would  wish  that,"  said  Roths- 
child ;  "  I  wish  them  to  give  mind,  and  soul, 
and  heart,  and  body,  and  everything  to  busi- 
ness ;  that  is  the  way  to  be  happy."  "  Stick 
to  one  business,  young  man,"  he  added,  ad- 
dressing a  young  brewer ;  "  stick  to  your 
brewery,  and  you  may  be  the  great  brewer  of 
London.  But  be  a  brewer,  and  a  banker,  and 
a  merchant,  and  a  manufacturer,  and  you 
will  soon  be  in  the  Gazette." 

Not  many  things  indifferently,  but  one 
thing  supremely,  is  the  demand  of  the  hour. 
He  who  scatters  his  efforts  in  this  intense, 
concentrated  age,  cannot  hope  to  succeed. 

"  Goods  removed,  messages  taken,  carpets 


CONCENTRATED   ENERGY      123 

beaten,  and  poetry  composed  on  any  subject," 
was  the  sign  of  a  man  .in  London  who  was 
not  very  successful  at  any  of  these  lines  of 
work,  and  reminds  one  of  Monsieur  Kenard, 
of  Paris,  "a  public  scribe,  who  digests  ac- 
counts, explains  the  language  of  flowers,  and 
sells  fried  potatoes." 

The  great  difference  between  those  who 
succeed  and  those  who  fail  does  not  consist 
in  the  amount  of  work  done  by  each,  but  in  ; 
the  amount  of  intelligent  work.  Many  of 
those  who  fail  most  ignominiously  do  enough 
to  achieve  grand  success;  but  they  labor  at 
haphazard,  building  up  with  one  hand  only 
to  tear  down  with  the  other.  They  do  not 
grasp  circumstances  and  change  them  into 
opportunities.  They  have  no  faculty  of  turn- 
ing honest  defeats  into  telling  victories.  With 
ability  enough,  and  time  in  abundance, — the 
warp  and  woof  of  success, — they  are  forever 
throwing  back  and  forth  an  empty  shuttle, 
and  the  real  web  of  life  is  never  woven. 

If  you  ask  one  of  them  to  state  his  aim 
and  purpose  in  life,  he  will  say :  "  I  hardly 
know  yet  for  what  I  am  best  adapted,  but  I 
am  a  thorough  believer  in  genuine  hard 
work,  and  I  am  determined  to  dig  early  and 
late  all  my  life,  and  I  know  I  shall  come 


124     PUSHING   TO   THE  FRONT 

across  something — either  gold,  silver,  or  at 
least  iron."  I  say  most  emphatically,  no. 
Would  an  intelligent  man  dig  up  a  whole 
continent  to  find  its  veins  of  silver  and  gold? 
The  man  who  is  forever  looking  about  to  see 
what  he  can  find  never  finds  anything.  If 
we  look  for  nothing  in  particular,  we  find 
just  that  and  no  more.  We  find  what  we 
seek  with  all  our  heart.  The  bee  is  not  the 
only  insect  that  visits  the  flower,  but  it  is 
the  only  one  that  carries  honey  away.  It 
matters  not  how  rich  the  materials  we  have 
gleaned  from  the  years  of  our  study  and  toil 
in  youth,  if  we  go  out  into  life  with  no  well- 
defined  idea  of  our  future  work,  there  is  no 
happy  conjunction  of  circumstances  that  will 
arrange  them  into  an  imposing  structure,  and 
give  it  magnificent  proportions. 

"  What  an  immense  power  over  the  life," 
says  Elizabeth  Stuart  Phelps  Ward,  "is  the 
power  of  possessing  distinct  aims.  The  voice, 
the  dress,  the  look,  the  very  motions  of  a  per- 
son, define  and  alter  when  he  or  she  begins  to 
live  for  a  reason.  I  fancy  that  I  can  select,  in 
a  crowded  street,  the  busy,  blessed  women  who 
support  themselves,  They  carry  themselves 
with  an  air  of  conscious  self-respect  and  self- 
content,  which  a  shabby  alpaca  cannot  hide, 


CONCENTRATED  ENERGY      125 

nor  a  bonnet  of  silk  enhance,  nor  even  sick- 
ness nor  exhaustion  quite  drag  out." 

It  is  said  that  the  wind  never  blows  fair  for 
that  sailor  who  knows  not  to  what  port  he  is 
bound. 

"  The  weakest  living  creature/'  says  Car- 
lyle,  "  by  concentrating  his  powers  on  a 
single  object,  can  accomplish  something; 
whereas  the  strongest,  by  dispersing  his  over 
many,  may  fail  to  accomplish  anything.  The 
drop,  by  continually  falling,  bores  its  passage 
through  the  hardest  rock.  The  hasty  torrent 
rushes  over  it  with  hideous  uproar  and  leaves 
no  trace  behind." 

"  When  I  was  young  I  used  to  think  it  was 
thunder  that  killed  men,"  said  a  shrewd 
preacher ;  "  but  as  I  grew  older,  I  found  it 
was  lightning.  So  I  resolved  to  thunder  less, 
and  lighten  more." 

The  man  who  knows  one  thing,  and  can  do 
it  better  than  anybody  else,  even  if  it  only  be 
the  art  of  raising  turnips,  receives  the  crown 
he  merits.  If  he  raises  the  best  turnips 
by  reason  of  concentrating  all  his  energy  to 
that  end,  he  is  a  benefactor  to  the  race,  and 
is  recognized  as  such. 

,    If  a  salamander  be  cut  in  two,  the  front 
part  will  run  forward  and  the  other  back- 


126     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

ward.  Such  is  the  progress  of  him  who  di- 
vides his  purpose.  Success  is  jealous  of  scat- 
tered energies. 

No  one  can  pursue  a  worthy  object  stead- 
ily and  persistently  with  all  the  powers  of 
his  mind,  and  yet  make  his  life  a  failure. 
You  can't  throw  a  tallow  candle  through  the 
side  of  a  tent,  but  you  can  shoot  it  through 
an  oak  board.  Melt  a  charge  of  shot  into  a 
bullet,  and  it  can  be  fired  through  the  bodies 
of  four  men.  Focus  the  rays  of  the  sun  in 
winter,  and  you  can  kindle  a  fire  with  ease. 

The  giants  of  the  race  have  been  men  of 
concentration,  who  have  struck  sledgehammer 
blows  in  one  place  until  they  have  accom- 
plished their  purpose.  The  successful  men 
of  to-day  are  men  of  one  overmastering  idea, 
one  unwavering  aim,  men  of  single  and  in- 
tense purpose.  "  Scatteration  "  is  the  curse 
of  American  business  life.  Too  many  are 
like  Douglas  Jerrold's  friend,  who  could  con- 
verse in  twenty-four  languages,  but  had  no 
ideas  to  express  in  any  one  of  them. 

"The  only  valuable  kind  of  study/'  said 
Sydney  Smith,  "is  to  read  so  heartily  that 
dinner-time  comes  two  hours  before  you  ex- 
pected it;  to  sit  with  your  Livy  before  you 
and  hear  the  geese  cackling  that  saved  the 


CONCENTRATED  ENERGY  .127 

Capitol,  and  to  see  with  your  own  eyes  the 
Carthaginian  sutlers  gathering  up  the  rings 
of  the  Roman  knights  after  the  battle  of 
Cannae,  and  heaping  them  into  bushels,  and 
to  be  so  intimately  present  at  the  actions  you 
are  reading  of,  that  when  anybody  knocks  at 
the  door  it  will  take  you  two  or  three  seconds 
to  determine  whether  you  are  in  your  own 
study  or  on  the  plains  of  Lombardy,  looking 
at  Hannibal's  weather-beaten  face  and  admir- 
ing the  splendor  of  his  single  eye." 

"  The  one  serviceable,  safe,  certain,  remun- 
erative, attainable  quality  in  every  study  and 
pursuit  is  the  quality  of  attention,"  said 
Charles  Dickens.  "  My  own  invention,  or 
imagination,  such  as  it  is,  I  can  most  truth- 
fully assure  you,  would  never  have  served  me 
as  it  has,  but  for  the  habit  of  commonplace, 
humble,  patient,  daily,  toiling,  drudging  at- 
tention." When  asked  on  another  occasion 
the  secret  of  his  success,  he  said :  "  I  never 
put  one  hand  to  anything  on  which  I  could 
throw  my  whole  self."  "  Be  a  whole  man  at 
everything,"  wrote  Joseph  Gurney  to  his 
son,  "a  whole  man  at  study,  in  work,  and 
in  play." 

Don't  dally  with  your  purpose. 

"  I  go  at  what  I  am  about,"  said  Charles 


128    PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

Kingsley,  "  as  if .  there  was  nothing  else  in 
the  world  for  the  time  being.  That's  the 
secret  of  all  hard-working  men;  but  most  of 
them  can't  carry  it  into  their  amusements." 

Many  a  man  fails  to  become  a  great  man 
by  splitting  into  several  small  ones,  choosing 
to  be  a  tolerable  Jack-of-all-trades  rather  than 
to  be  an  unrivaled  specialist. 

"  Many  persons  seeing  me  so  much  en- 
gaged in  active  life,"  said  Edward  Bulwer 
Lytton,  "  and  as  much  about  the  world  as  if 
I  had  never  been  a  student,  have  said  to  me, 
'  When  do  you  get  time  to  write  all  your 
books?  How  on  earth  do  you  contrive  to  do 
so  much  work  ? '  I  shall  surprise  you  by  the 
answer  I  made.  The  answer  is  this — '  I  con- 
trive to  do  so  much  by  never  doing  too  much 
at  a  time.  A  man  to  get  through  work  well 
must  not  overwork  himself ;  or,  if  he  do  too 
much  to-day,  the  reaction  of  fatigue  will 
come,  and  he  will  be  obliged  to  do  too  little 
to-morrow.  Now,  since  I  began  really  and 
earnestly  to  study,  which  was  not  till  I  had 
left  college  and  was  actually  in  the  world,  I 
may  perhaps  say  that  I  have  gone  through  as 
large  a  course  of  general  reading  as  most 
men  of  my  time.  I  have  traveled  much  and 
I  have  seen  much;  I  have  mixed  much  in 


CONCENTRATED   ENERGY      129 

politics,  and  in  the  various  business  of  life; 
and  in  addition  to  all  this,  I  have  published 
somewhere  about  sixty  volumes,  some  upon 
subjects  requiring  much  special  research. 
And  what  time '  do  you  think,  as  a  general 
rule,  I  have  devoted  to  study,  to  reading  and 
writing?  Not  more  than  three  hours  a  day; 
and,  when  Parliament  is  sitting,  not  always 
that.  But  then,  during  these  three  hours,  I 
have  given  my  whole  attention  to  what  I 
was  about." 

S.  T.  Coleridge  possessed  marvelous  pow- 
ers of  mind,  but  he  had  no  definite  purpose ; 
he  lived  in  an  atmosphere  of  mental  dissipa- 
tion which  consumed  his  energy,  exhausted 
his  stamina,  and  his  life  was  in  many  respects 
a  miserable  failure.  He  lived  in  dreams  and 
died  in  reverie.  He  was  continually  forming 
plans  and  resolutions,  but  to  the  day  of  his 
death  they  remained  simply  resolutions  and 
plans. 

He  was  always  just  going  to  do  something1, 
but  never  did  it.  "  Coleridge  is  dead,"  wrote 
Charles  Lamb  to  a  friend,  "and  is  said  to 
have  left  behind  him  above  forty  thousand 
treatises  on  metaphysics  and  divinity — not 
one  of  them  complete!" 

Every  great  man  has  become  great,  every 


130     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

successful  man  has  succeeded,  in  proportion 
as  he  has  confined  his  powers  to  one  partic- 
ular channel. 

Hogarth  would  rivet  his  attention  upon  a 
face  and  study  it  until  it  was  photographed 
upon  his  memory,  when  he  could  reproduce 
it  at  will.  He  studied  and  examined  each 
object  as  eagerly  as  though  he  would  never 
have  a  chance  to  see  it  again,  and  this  habit 
of  close  observation  enabled  him  to  develop 
his  work  with  marvelous  detail.  The  very 
modes  of  thought  of  the  time  in  which  he 
lived  were  reflected  from  his  works.  He  was 
not  a  man  of  great  education  or  culture,  ex- 
cept in  his  power  of  observation. 

With  an  immense  procession  passing  up 
Broadway,  the  streets  lined  with  people,  and 
bands  playing  lustily,  Horace  Greeley  would 
sit  upon  the  steps  of  the  Astor  House,  use 
the  top  of  his  hat  for  a  desk,  and  write  an 
editorial  for  the  "  New  York  Tribune  "  which' 
would  be  quoted  far  and  wide. 

Offended  by  a  pungent  article,  a  gentle- 
man called  at  the  "  Tribune "  office  and  in- 
quired for  the  editor.  He  was  shown  into  a 
little  seven-by-nine  sanctum,  where  Greeley, 
with  his  head  close  down  to  his  paper,  sat 
Scribbling  away  at  a  two-forty  rate.  The 


CONCENTRATED   ENERGY      131 

angry  man  began  by  asking  if  this  was  Mr. 
Greeley.  "Yes,  sir;  what  do  you  want?" 
said  the  editor  quickly,  without  once  looking 
tip  from  his  paper.  The  irate  visitor  then 
began  using  his  tongue,  with  no  regard  for 
the  rules  of  propriety,  good  breeding,  or  rea- 
son. Meantime  Mr.  Greeley  continued  to 
write.  Page  after  page  was  dashed  off  in  the 
most  impetuous  style,  with  no  change  of  fea- 
tures and  without  his  paying  the  slightest 
attention  to  the  visitor.  Finally,  after  about 
twenty  minutes  of  the  most  impassioned 
abuse  ever  poured  out  in  an  editor's  office, 
the  angry  man  became  disgusted,  and 
abruptly  turned  to  walk  out  of  the  room. 
Then,  for  the  first  time,  Mr.  Greeley  quickly 
looked  up,  rose  from  his  chair,  and  slapping 
the  gentleman  familiarly  on  his  shoulder,  in 
a  pleasant  tone  of  voice  said :  "  Don't  go, 
friend;  sit  down,  sit  down,  and  free  your 
mind;  it  will  do  you  good, — you  will  feel 
better  for  it.  Besides,  it  helps  me  to  think 
what  I  am  to  write  about.  Don't  go." 

One  unwavering  aim  has  ever  characterized 
successful  men. 

"Daniel  Webster,"  said  Sydney  Smith, 
"  struck  me  much  like  a  steam-engine  in 
trousers." 


132    PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONf 

As  Adams  suggests,  Lord  Brougham,  like 
Canning,  had  too  many  talents;  and,  though 
as  a  lawyer  he  gained  the  most  splendid  prize 
of  his  profession,  the  Lord  Chancellorship  of 
England,  and  merited  the  applause  of  scien- 
tific men  for  his  investigations  in  science,  yet 
his  life  on  the  whole  was  a  failure.  He  was 
"  everything  by  turns  and  nothing  long." 
With  all  his  magnificent  abilities  he  left  no 
permanent  mark  on  history  or  literature,  and 
actually  outlived  his  own  fame. 

Miss  Martineau  says,  "Lord  Brougham 
was  at  his  chateau  at  Cannes  when  the  da- 
guerreotype process  first  came  into  vogue. 
An  artist  undertook  to  take  a  view  of  the 
chateau  with  a  group  of  guests  on  the  bal- 
cony. His  Lordship  was  asked  to  keep  per- 
fectly still  for  five  seconds,  and  he  promised 
that  he  would  not  stir,  but  alas, — he  moved. 
The  consequence  was  that  there  was  a  blur 
where  Lord  Brougham  should  have  been. 

"There  is  something,"  continues  Miss 
Martineau,  "  very  typical  in  this.  In  the  pic- 
ture of  our  century,  as  taken  from  the  life 
by  history,  this  very  man  should  have  been 
the  central  figure.  But,  owing  to  his  want 
of  steadfastness,  there  will  be  forever  a  blur 
where  Lord  Brougham  should  have  been. 


CONCENTRATED  ENERGY      133 

How  many  lives  are  blurs  for  want  of  con- 
centration and  steadfastness  of  purpose!" 

Fowell  Buxton  attributed  his  success  to 
ordinary  means  and  extraordinary  application, 
and  being  a  whole  man  to  one  thing  at  a  time. 
It  is  ever  the  unwavering  pursuit  of  a  single 
aim  that  wins.  "  Non  multa,  sed  multum" — » 
not  many  things,  but  much,  was  Coke's  motto. 

It  is  the  almost  invisible  point  of  a  needle, 
the  keen,  slender  edge  of  a  razor  or  an  ax, 
that  opens  the  way  for  the  bulk  that  fol- 
lows. Without  point  or  edge  the  bulk  would 
be  useless.  It  is  the  man  of  one  line  of  work, 
the  sharp-edged  man,  who  cuts  his  way 
through  obstacles  and  achieves  brilliant  suc- 
cess. While  we  should  shun  that  narrow  de- 
votion to  one  idea  which  prevents  the  har- 
monious development  of  our  powers,  we 
should  avoid  on  the  other  hand  the  extreme 
versatility  of  one  of  whom  W.  M.  Praed 
says : — 

His  talk  is  like  a  stream  which  runs 

With  rapid  change  from  rocks  to  roses, 
It  slips  from  politics  to  puns, 

It  glides  from  Mahomet  to  Moses: 
Beginning  with  the  laws  that  keep 

The  planets  in  their  radiant  courses, 
And  ending  with  some  precept  deep 

For  skinning  eels  or  shoeing  horses. 


134    PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

If  you  can  get  a  child  learning  to  walk  to 
fix  his  eyes  on  any  object,  he  will  generally 
navigate  to  that  point  without  capsizing,  but 
distract  his  attention  and  down  he  goes. 

The  young  man  seeking  a  position  to-day 
is  not  asked  what  college  he  came  from  or 
who  his  ancestors  were.  "  What  can  you 
do?"  is  the  great  question.  It  is  special 
training  that  is  wanted.  Most  of  the  men  at 
the  head  of  great  firms  and  great  enterprises 
have  been  promoted  step  by  step  from  the 
bottom. 

"  I  know  that  he  can  toil  terribly,"  said 
Cecil  of  Walter  Raleigh,  in  explanation  of 
the  latter's  success. 

As  a  rule,  what  the  heart  longs  for  the 
head  and  the  hands  may  attain.  The  currents 
of  knowledge,  of  wealth,  of  success,  are  as 
certain  and  fixed  as  the  tides  of  the  sea. 
In  all  great  successes  we  can  trace  the 
power  of  concentration,  riveting  every  faculty 
upon  one  unwavering  aim;  perseverance  in 
the  pursuit  of  an  undertaking  in  spite  of  every 
difficulty;  and  courage  which  enables  one  to 
bear  up  under  all  trials,  disappointments,  and 
temptations. 

Chemists  tell  us  that  there  is  power  enough 
in  a  single  acre  of  grass  to  drive  all  the  mills 


CONCENTRATED   ENERGY      135 

and  steam-cars  in  the  world,  could  we  but 
concentrate  it  upon  the  piston-rod  of  a  steam- 
engine.  But  it  is  at  rest,  and  so,  in  the  light 
of  science,  it  is  comparatively  valueless. 

Dr.  Mathews  says  that  the  man  who  scat- 
ters himself  upon  many  objects  soon  loses 
his  energy,  and  with  his  energy  his  enthu- 
siasm. 

"  Never  study  on  speculation,"  says  Waters ; 
"  all  such  study  is  vain.  Form  a  plan ;  have  an 
object;  then  work  for  it;  learn  all  you  can 
about  it,  and  you  will  be  sure  to  succeed. 
What  I  mean  by  studying  on  speculation  is 
that  aimless  learning  of  things  because  they 
may  be  useful  some  day;  which  is  like  the 
conduct  of  the  woman  who  bought  at  auction 
a  brass  door-plate  with  the  name  of  Thomp- 
son on  it,  thinking  it  might  be  useful  some 
day!" 

Definiteness  of  aim  is  characteristic  of  all 
true  art.  He  is  not  the  greatest  painter  who 
crowds  the  greatest  number  of  ideas  upon  a 
single  canvas,  giving  all  the  figures  equal 
prominence.  He  is  the  genuine  artist  who 
makes  the  greatest  variety  express  the  great- 
est unity,  who  develops  the  leading  idea  in 
the  central  figure,  and  makes  all  the  subordi- 
nate figures,  lights,  and  shades  point  to  that 


136     PUSHING   TO  THE   FRONT 

^center  and  find  expression  there.  So  in  every 
well-balanced  life,  no  matter  how  versatile 
in  endowments  or  how  broad  in  culture,  there 
is  one  grand  central  purpose,  in  which  all 
the  subordinate  powers  of  the  soul  are 
brought  to  a  focus,  and  where  they  will  find 
fit  expression.  In  nature  we  see  no  waste  of 
energy,  nothing  left  to  chance.  Since  the 
shuttle  of  creation  shot  for  the  first  time 
through  chaos,  design  has  marked  the  course 
of  every  golden  thread.  Every  leaf,  every 
flower,  every  crystal,  every  atom  even,  has  a 
purpose  stamped  upon  it  which  unmistakably 
points  to  the  crowning  summit  of  all  creation 
— man. 

Young  men  are  often  told  to  aim  high, 
but  we  must  aim  at  what  we  would  hit.  A 
general  purpose  is  not  enough.  The  arrow 
shot  from  the  bow  does  not  wander  around 
to  see  what  it  can  hit  on  its  way,  but  flies 
straight  to  the  mark.  The  magnetic  needle 
does  not  point  to  all  the  lights  in  the  heavens 
to  see  which  it  likes  best.  They  all  at- 
tract it.  The  sun  dazzles,  the  meteor  beckons, 
the  stars  twinkle  to  it,  and  try  to  win  its  af- 
fections; but  the  needle,  true  to  its  instinct, 
an3  with  a  finger  that  never  errs  in  sunshine 
or  in  storm,  points  steadily  to  the  North  Star ; 


CONCENTRATED  ENERGY      137 

for,  while  all  the  other  stars  must  course  with 
untiring  tread  around  their  great  centers 
through  all  the  ages,  the  North  Star,  alone, 
distant  beyond  human  comprehension,  moves 
with  stately  sweep  on  its  circuit  of  more  than 
25,000  years,  for  all  practical  purposes  of 
man  stationary,  not  only  for  a  day,  but  for 
a  century.  So  all  along  the  path  of  life  other 
luminaries  will  beckon  to  lead  us  from  our 
cherished  aim — from  the  course  of  truth  and 
duty ;  but  let  no  moons  which  shine  with  bor- 
rowed light,  no  meteors  which  dazzle,  but 
never  guide,  turn  the  needle  of  our  purpose 
from  the  North  Star  of  its  hope. 


VII.    "  ON  TIME,0  OR  THE  TRIUMPH 
OF    PROMPTNESS 

"On  the  great  clock  of  time  there  is  but  one 
word — NOW." 

Note  the  sublime  precision  that  leads  the  earth 
over  a  circuit  of  five  hundred  millions  of  miles  back 
to  the  solstice  at  the  appointed  moment  without  the 
loss  of  one  second, — no,  not  the  millionth  part  of  a 
second, — for  ages  and  ages  of  which  it  traveled  that 
imperiled  road. — EDWARD  EVERETT. 

"  Who  cannot  but  see  oftentimes  how  strange  the 
threads  of  our  destiny  run?  Oft  it  is  only  for  a 
moment  the  favorable  instant  is  presented.  We 
miss  it,  and  months  and  years  are  lost." 

By  the  street  of  by  and  by  one  arrives  at  the 
house  of  never.— CERVANTES. 

"Lose  this  day  by  loitering — 't  will  be  the  same 
story  to-morrow,  and  the  next  more  dilatory." 

Let's  take  the  instant  by  the  forward  top. — 
SHAKESPEARE. 

|ASTE,   post,   haste!      Haste 
for    thy    life ! "     was     fre- 
qently    written    upon    mes- 
sages in  the  days  of  Henry 
VIII.    of    England,    with    a 
picture  of  a  courier  swing- 
ing  from   a   gibbet.     Post-offices   were   un- 
known, and  letters  were  carried  by  govern- 
138 


TRIUMPH   OF   PROMPTNESS       139 

ment  messengers  subject  to  hanging  if  they 
delayed  upon  the  road. 

Even  in  the  old,  slow  days  of  stage-coaches, 
when  it  took  a  month  of  dangerous  traveling 
to  accomplish  the  distance  we  can  now  span 
in  a  few  hours,  unnecessary  delay  was  a 
crime.  One  of  the  greatest  gains  civilization 
has  made  is  in  measuring  and  utilizing  time. 
We  can  do  as  much  in  an  hour  to-day  as  they 
could  in  twenty  hours  a  hundred  years  ago. 

"  Delays  have  dangerous  ends."  Caesar's 
delay  to  read  a  message  cost  him  his  life 
when  he  reached  the  senate  house.  Colonel 
Rahl,  the  Hessian  commander  at  Trenton, 
was  playing  cards  when  a  messenger  brought 
a  letter  stating  that  Washington  was  cross- 
ing the  Delaware.  He  put  the  letter  in  his 
pocket  without  reading  it  until  the  game  was 
finished,  when  he  rallied  his  men  only  to  die 
just  before  his  troops  were  taken  prisoners. 
Only  a  few  minutes'  delay,  but  he  lost  honor, 
liberty,  life! 

Success  is  the  child  of  two  very  plain 
parents — punctuality  and  accuracy.  There 
are  critical  moments  in  every  successful  life 
when  if  the  mind  hesitate  or  a  nerve  flinch 
all  will  be  lost. 

"  Immediately  on  receiving  your  proclama- 


I4o     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT- 

tion,"  wrote  Governor  Andrew  of  Massachu- 
setts to  President  Lincoln  on  May  3,  1861, 
"we  took  up  the  war,  and  have  carried  on 
our  part  of  it,  in  the  spirit  in  which  we 
believe  the  Administration  and  the  American 
people  intend  to  act,  namely,  as  if  there  were 
not  an  inch  of  red  tape  in  the  world."  He 
had  received  a  telegram  for  troops  from 
Washington  on  Monday,  April  15 ;  at  nine 
o'clock  the  next  Sunday  he  said :  "  All  the 
regiments  demanded  from  Massachusetts  are 
already  either  in  Washington,  or  in  Fortress 
Monroe,  or  on  their  way  to  the  defense  of 
the  Capitol." 

"  The  only  question  which  I  can  entertain," 
he  said,  "  is  what  to  do ;  and  when  that  ques- 
tion is  answered,  the  other  is,  what  next  to 
do." 

"  The  whole  period  of  youth,"  said  Ruskin, 
"  is  one  essentially  of  formation,  edification, 
instruction.  There  is  not  an  hour  of  it  but 
is  trembling  with  destinies — not  a  moment  of 
which,  once  passed,  the  appointed  work  can 
ever  be  done  again,  or  the  neglected  blow 
struck  on  the  cold  iron." 

Napoleon  laid  great  stress  upon  that  "  su- 
preme moment,"  that  "  nick  of  time  "  which 
occurs  in  every  battle,  to  take  advantage  of 


TRIUMPH   OF  PROMPTNESS       141 

which  means  victory,  and  to  lose  in  hesita- 
tion means  disaster.  He  said  that  he  beat 
the  Austrians  because  they  did  not  know  the 
value  >of  five  minutes ;  and  it  has  been  said 
that  among  the  trifles  that  conspired  to  de- 
feat him  at  Waterloo,  the  loss  of  a  few  mo- 
ments by  himself  and  Grouchy  on  the  fatal 
morning  was  the  most  significant  Bliicher 
was  on  time,  and  Grouchy  was  late.  It  was 
enough  to  send  Napoleon  to  St.  Helena,  and 
to  change  the  destiny  of  millions. 

It  is  a  well-known  truism  that  has  almost 
been  elevated  to  the  dignity  of  a  maxim,  that 
what  may  be  done  at  any  time  will  be  done 
at  no  time. 

The  African  Association  of  London  wanted 
to  send  Ledyard,  the  traveler,  to  Africa,  and 
asked  when  he  would  be  ready  to  go.  "  To- 
morrow morning,"  was  the  reply.  John  Jer- 
vis,  afterwards  Earl  St.  Vincent,  was  asked 
when  he  could  join  his  ship,  and  replied, 
"  Directly."  Colin  Campbell,  appointed  com- 
mander of  the  army  in  India,  and  asked  when 
he  could  set  out,  replied  without  hesitation, 
"  To-morrow." 

The  energy  wasted  in  postponing  until  to- 
morrow a  duty  of  to-day  would  often  do  the 
work.  How  much  harder  and  more  disagree- 


142     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

able,  too,  it  is  to  do  work  which  has  been 
put  off!  What  would  have  been  done  at  the 
time  with  pleasure  or  even  enthusiasm,  after 
it  has  been  delayed  for  days  and  weeks,  be- 
comes drudgery.  Letters  can  never  be  an- 
swered so  easily  as  when  first  received.  Many 
large  firms  make  it  a  rule  never  to  allow  a 
letter  to  lie  unanswered  overnight. 

Promptness  takes  the  drudgery  out  of  an 
occupation.  Putting  off  usually  means  leav- 
ing off,  and  going  to  do  becomes  going  un- 
done. Doing  a  deed  is  like  sowing  a  seed :  if 
not  done  at  just  the  right  time  it  will  be  for- 
ever out  of  season.  The  summer  of  eternity 
will  not  be  long  enough  to  bring  to  maturity 
the  fruit  of  a  delayed  action.  If  a  star  or 
planet  were  delayed  one  second,  it  might 
throw  the  whole  universe  out  of  harmony. 

"  There  is  no  moment  like  the  present/' 
said  Maria  Edgeworth;  "not  only  so,  there 
is  no  moment  at  all,  no  instant  force  and 
energy,  but  in  the  present.  The  man  who 
will  not  execute  his  resolutions  when  they 
are  fresh  upon  him  can  have  no  hopes  from 
them  afterward.  They  will  be  dissipated,  lost 
in  the  hurry  and  scurry  of  the  world,  ,'or  sunk 
in  the  slough  of  indolence." 

Cobbett  said  he  owed  his  success  to  being 


TRIUMPH  OF  PROMPTNESS      143 

"always  ready"  more  than  to  all  his  natural 
abilities  combined. 

"  To  this  quality  I  owed  my  extraordinary 
promotion  in  the  army,"  said  he.  "  If  I 
had  to  mount  guard  at  ten,  I  was  ready  at 
nine ;  never  did  any  man  or  anything  wait  one 
minute  for  me." 

"How,"  asked  a  man  of  Sir  Walter  Ra- 
leigh, "  do  you  accomplish  so  much,  and  in 
so  short  a  time?"  "When  I  have  anything 
to  do,  I  go  and  do  it,"  was  the  reply.  The 
man  who  always  acts  promptly,  even  if  he 
makes  occasional  mistakes,  will  succeed  when 
a  procrastinator,  even  if  he  have  the  better 
judgment,  will  fail. 

When  asked  how  he  managed  to  accom- 
plish so  much  work,  and  at  the  same  time 
attend  to  his  social  duties,  a  French  states- 
man replied,  "  I  do  it  simply  by  never  post- 
poning till  to-morrow  what  should  be  done 
to-day."  It  was  said  of  an  unsuccessful  pub- 
lic man  that  he  used  to  reverse  this  process, 
his  favorite  maxim  being  "  never  to  do  to- 
day what  might  be  postponed  till  to-m'orrow." 
How  many  men  have  dawdled  away  their 
success  and  allowed  companions  and  relatives 
to  steal  it  away  five  minutes  at  a  time! 

"  To-morrow,  didst  thou  say  ?  "  asked  Cot- 


144     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

ton.  "Go  to— I  will  not  hear  'of  it.  To- 
morrow !  'tis  a  sharper  who  stakes  his  penury 
against  thy  plenty — who  takes  thy  ready  cash 
and  pays  thee  naught  but  wishes,  hopes,  and 
promises,  the  currency  of  idiots.  To-morrow! 
it  is  a  period  nowhere  to  be  found  in  all  the 
hoary  registers  of  time,  unless  perchance  in 
the  fool's  calendar.  Wisdom  disclaims  the 
word,  nor  holds  society  with  those  that  own 
it.  Tis  fancy's  child,  and  folly  is  its  father; 
wrought  of  such  stuffs  as  dreams  are;  and 
baseless  as  the  fantastic  visions  of  the  even- 
ing." Oh,  how  many  a  wreck  on  the  road  to 
success  could  say :  "  I  have  spent  all  my  life 
in  pursuit-  of  to-morrow,  being  assured  that 
to-morrow  has  some  vast  benefit  or  other  in 
store  for  me." 

"But  his  resolutions  remained  unshaken," 
Charles  Reade  continues  in  his  story  of  Noah 
Skinner,  the  defaulting  clerk,  who  had  been 
overcome  by  a  sleepy  languor  after  deciding 
to  make  restitution;  "by  and  by,  waking  up 
from  a  sort  of  heavy  doze,  he  took,  as  it 
were,  a  last  look  at  the  receipts,  and  mur- 
mured, '  My  head,  how  heavy  it  feels ! '  But 
presently  he  roused  himself,  full  of  his  peni- 
tent resolutions,  and  murmured  again,  brok- 
enly, '  I'll  take  it  to — Pembroke — Street  to— 


TRIUMPH   OF  PROMPTNESS      145 

morrow;  to — morrow/  The  morrow  found 
him,  and  so  did  the  detectives,  dead/* 

"To-morrow."  It  is  the  devil's  motto. 
All  history  is  strewn  with  its  brilliant  victims, 
the  wrecks  of  half-finished  plans  and  unex- 
ecuted resolutions.  It  is  the  favorite  refuge 
of  sloth  and  incompetency. 

"  Strike  while  the  iron  is  hot,"  and  "  Make 
hay  while  the  sun  shines,"  are  golden  maxims. 

Very  few  people  recognize  the  hour  when 
laziness  begins  to  set  in.  Some  people  it 
attacks  after  dinner;  some  after  lunch;  and 
some  after  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening. 
There  is  in  every  person's  life  a  crucial  hour 
in  the  day,  which  must  be  employed  instead 
of  wasted  if  the  day  is  to  be  saved.  With 
most  people  the  early  morning  hour  becomes 
the  test  of  the  day's  success. 

A  person  was  once  extolling  the  skill  and 
courage  of  Mayenne  in  Henry's  presence. 
"  You  are  right,"  said  Henry,  "  he  is  a  great 
captain,  but  I  have  always  five  hours'  start 
of  him."  Henry  rose  at  four  in  the  morning, 
and  Mayenne  at  about  ten.  This  made  all  the 
difference  between  them.  Indecision  becomes 
a  disease  and  procrastination  is  its  forerun- 
ner. There  is  only  one  known  remedy  for 
the  victims  of  indecision,  and  that  is  prompt 


146     PUSHING    TO   THE   FRONT 

decision.  Otherwise  the  disease  is  fatal  to 
all  success  or  achievement.  He  who  hesitates 
is  lost. 

A  noted  writer  says  that  a  bed  is  a  bundle 
of  paradoxes.  We  go  to  it  with  reluctance, 
yet  we  quit  it  with  regret.  We  make  up  our 
minds  every  night  to  leave  it  early,  but  we 
make  up  our  bodies  every  morning  to  keep 
it  late. 

Yet  most  of  those  who  have  become  emi- 
nent have  been  early  risers.  Peter  the  Great 
always  rose  before  daylight.  "  I  am,"  said 
he,  for  making  my  life  as  long  as  possi- 
ble, and  therefore  sleep  as  little  as  possible-" 
Alfred  the  Great  rose  before  daylight.  In 
the  hours  of  early  morning  Columbus  planned 
his  voyage  to  America,  and  Napoleon  his 
greatest  campaigns.  Copernicus  was  an  early 
riser,  as  were  most  of  the  famous  astron- 
omers of  ancient  and  modern  times.  Bryant 
rose  at  five,  Bancroft  at  dawn,  and  nearly  all 
our  leading  authors  in  the  early  morning. 
Washington,  Jefferson,  Webster,  Clay,  and 
Calhoun  were  all  early  risers. 

Daniel  Webster  used  often  to  answer  twenty 
to  thirty  letters  before  breakfast. 

Walter  Scott  was  a  very  punctual  manc 
This  was  the  secret  of  his  enormous  achieve- 


TRIUMPH   CF  PROMPTNESS      147 

ments.  He  rose  at  five.  By  breakfast-time 
he  had,  as  he  used  to  say,  broken  the  neck 
of  the  day's  work.  Writing  to  a  youth  who 
had  obtained  a  situation  and  asked  him  for 
advice,  he  gave  this  counsel :  "  Beware  of 
stumbling  over  a  propensity  which  easily  be- 
sets you  from  not  having  your  time  fully  em- 
ployed— I  mean  what  the  women  call  daw- 
dling. Do  instantly  whatever  is  to  be  done, 
and  take  the  hours  of  recreation  after  busi- 
ness, never  before  it." 

Not  too  much  can  be  said  about  the  value 
of  the  habit  of  rising  early.  Eight  hours  is 
enough  sleep  for  any  man.  Very  frequently 
seven  hours  is  plenty.  After  the  eighth  hour 
in  bed,  if  a  man  is  able,  it  is  his  business  to 
get  up,  dress  quickly,  and  go  to  work. 

"A  singular  mischance  has  happened  to 
some  of  our  friends,"  said  Hamilton.  "At 
the  instant  when  He  ushered  them  into  ex- 
istence, God  gave  them  a  work  to  do,  and 
He  also  gave  them  a  competence  of  time; 
so  much  that  if  they  began  at  the  right  mo- 
ment, and  wrought  with  sufficient  vigor,  their 
time  and  their  work  would  end  together.  But 
a  good  many  years  ago  a  strange  misfortune 
befell  them.  A  fragment  of  their  allotted  time 
was  lost.  They  cannot  tell  what  became  of 


148    PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

it,  but  sure  enough,  it  has  dropped  out  of 
existence;  for  just  like  two  measuring-lines 
laid  alongside,  the  one  an  inch  shorter  than 
the  other,  their  work  and  their  time  run  par- 
allel, but  the  work  is  always  ten  minutes  in 
advance  of  the  time.  They  are  not  irregular. 
They  are  never  too  soon.  Their  letters  are 
posted  the  very  minute  after  the  mail  is 
closed.  They  arrive  at  the  wharf  just  in 
time  to  see  the  steamboat  off,  they  come  in 
sight  of  the  terminus  precisely  as  the  station 
gates  are  closing.  They  do  not  break  any 
engagement  or  neglect  any  duty;  but  they 
systematically  go  about  it  too  late,  and  usu- 
ally too  late  by  about  the  same  fatal  interval." 

Some  one  has  said  that  "  promptness  is  a 
contagious  inspiration."  Whether  it  be  an 
inspiration,  or  an  acquirement,  it  is  one  of 
the  practical  virtues  of  civilization. 

There  is  one  thing  that  is  almost  as  sacred 
as  the  marriage  relation, — that  is,  an  appoint- 
ment. A  man  who  fails  to  meet  his  appoint- 
ment, unless  he  has  a  good  reason,  is  prac- 
tically a  liar,  and  the  world  treats  him  as 
such. 

"  If  a  man  has  no  regard  for  the  time 
of  other  men,"  said  Horace  Greeley,  "  why 
should  he  have  for  their  money?  What  is 


TRIUMPH  OF  PROMPTNESS      149 

the  difference  between  taking  a  man's  hour 
and  taking  his  five  dollars?  There  are  many 
men  to  whom  each  hour  of  the  business  day 
is  worth  more  than  five  dollars." 

When  President  Washington  dined  at  four, 
new  members  of  Congress  invited  to  dine  at 
the  White  House  would  sometimes  arrive 
late,  and  be  mortified  to  find  the  President 
eating.  "  My  cook,"  Washington  would  say, 
"  never  asks  if  the  visitors  have  arrived,  but 
if  the  hour  has  arrived." 

When  his  secretary  excused  the  lateness  of 
his  attendance  by  saying  that  his  watch  was 
too  slow,  Washington  replied,  "  Then  you 
must  get  a  new  watch,  or  I  another  secre* 
tary." 

Franklin  said  to  a  servant  who  was  always 
late,  but  always  ready  with  an  excuse,  "  I 
have  generally  found  that  the  man  who  is 
good  at  an  excuse  is  good  for  nothing  else." 

Napoleon  once  invited  his  marshals  to  dine 
with  him,  but,  as  they  did  not  arrive  at  the 
moment  appointed,  he  began  to  eat  without 
them.  They  came  in  just  as  he  was  rising 
from  the  table.  "Gentlemen,"  said  he,  "it 
is  now  past  dinner,  and  we  will  immediately 
proceed  to  business." 

Bliicher  was  one  of  the  promptest  men  that 


ISO    PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

ever  lived.  He  was  called  "  Marshal  For- 
ward." 

John  Quincy  Adams  was  never  known  to 
be  behind  time.  The  Speaker  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  knew  when  to  call  the 
House  to  order  by  seeing  Mr.  Adams  coming 
to  his  seat.  Once  a  member  said  that  it  was 
time  to  begin.  "  No,"  said  another,  "  Mr. 
Adams  is  not  in  his  seat."  It  was  found  that 
the  clock  was  three  minutes  fast,  and  prompt 
to  the  minute,  Mr.  Adams  arrived. 

Webster  was  never  late  at  a  recitation  in 
school  or  college.  In  court,  in  congress,  in 
society,  he  was  equally  punctual.  Amid  the 
cares  and  distractions  of  a  singularly  busy 
life,  Horace  Greeley  managed  to  be  on  time 
for  every  appointment.  Many  a  trenchant 
paragraph  for  the  "  Tribune "  was  written 
while  the  editor  was  waiting  far  men  of 
leisure,  tardy  at  some  meeting. 

Punctuality  is  the  soul  of  business,  as  brev- 
ity is  of  wit. 

During  the  first  seven  years  of  his  mercan- 
tile career,  Amos  Lawrence  did  not  permit  a 
bill  to  remain  unsettled  over  Sunday.  Punctu- 
ality is  said  to  be  the  politeness  of  princes. 
Some  men  are  always  running  to  catch  up  with 
their  business :  they  are  always  in  a  hurry,  and 


TRIUMPH   OF   PROMPTNESS       151 

give  you  the  impression  that  they  are  late  for 
a  train.  They  lack  method,  and  seldom  ac- 
complish much.  Every  business  man  knows 
that  there  are  moments  on  which  hang  the 
destiny  of  years.  If  you  arrive  a  few  mo- 
ments late  at  the  bank,  your  paper  may  be 
protested  and  your  credit  ruined. 

One  of  the  best  things  about  school  and 
college  life  is  that  the  bell  which  strikes  the 
hour  for  rising,  for  recitations,  or  for  lec- 
tures, teaches  habits  of  promptness.  Every 
young  man  should  have  a  watch  which  is  a 
good  timekeeper;  one  that  is  nearly  right  en- 
courages bad  habits,  and  is  an  expensive  in- 
vestment at  any  price. 

"  Oh,  how  I  do  appreciate  a  boy  who  is 
always  on  time ! "  says  H.  C.  Brown.  "  How 
quickly  you  learn  to  depend  on  him,  and  how 
soon  you  find  yourself  intrusting  him  with 
weightier  matters!  The  boy  who  has  ac- 
quired a  reputation  for  punctuality  has  made 
the  first  contribution  to  the  capital  that  in 
after  years  makes  his  success  a  certainty." 

Promptness  is  the  mother  of  confidence 
and  gives  credit.  It  is  the  best  possible  proof 
that  our  own  affairs  are  well  ordered  and 
well  conducted,  and  gives  others  confidence 
in  our  ability.  The  man  who  is  punctual,  as 


152     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

a  rule,  will  keep  his  word,  and  may  be  de- 
pended upon. 

A  conductor's  watch  is  behind  time,  and  a 
terrible  railway  collision  occurs.  A  leading 
firm  with  enormous  assets  becomes  bankrupt, 
simply  because  an  agent  is  tardy  in  transmit- 
ting available  funds,  as  ordered.  An  inno- 
cent man  is  hanged  because  the  messenger 
bearing  a  reprieve  should  have  arrived  five 
minutes  earlier.  A  man  is  stopped  five  min- 
utes to  hear  a  trivial  story  and  misses  a  train 
or  steamer  by  one  minute. 

Grant  decided  to  enlist  the  moment  that  he 
learned  of  the  fall  of  Sumter.  When  Buck- 
ner  sent  him  a  flag  of  truce  at  Fort  Donel- 
son,  asking  for  the  appointment  of  commis- 
sioners to  consider  terms  of  capitulation,  he 
promptly  replied :  "  No  terms  except  an  un- 
conditional and  immediate  surrender  can  be 
accepted.  I  propose  to  move  immediately 
upon  your  works."  Buckner  replied  that  cir- 
cumstances compelled  him  "  to  accept  the  un- 
generous and  unchivalrous  terms  which  you 
propose." 

The  man  who,  like  Napoleon,  can  on  the 
instant  seize  the  most  important  thing  and 
sacrifice  the  others,  is  sure  to  win. 

Many  a  wasted  life  dates  its  ruin  from  a 


TRIUMPH   OF  PROMPTNESS       153 

lost  five  minutes.  "Too  late"  can  be  read 
between  the  lines  on  the  tombstone  of  many 
a  man  who  has  failed.  A  few  minutes  often 
makes  all  the  difference  between  victory  and 
defeat,  success  and  failure. 


VIII.    A    FORTUNE    IN    GOOD    MAN- 
NERS 

Give  a  boy  address  and  accomplishments,  and  you 
give  him  the  mastery  of  palaces  and  fortunes  wher- 
ever he  goes;  he  has  not  the  trouble  of  earning  or 
owning  them;  they  solicit  him  to  enter  and  possess. 
—EMERSON. 

With  hat  in  hand,  one  gets  on  in  the  world.— 
GERMAN  PROVERR 

What  thou  wilt, 

Thou  must  rather  enforce  it  with  thy  smile, 

Than  hew  to  it  with  thy  sword. 

SHAKESPEARE. 

Politeness  has  been  compared  to  an  air  cushion, 
which,  although  there  is  apparently  nothing  in  it, 
eases  our  jolts  wonderfully. — GEORGE  L.  CAREY. 

Birth's  gude,  but  breedin's  better.— SCOTCH  PROV- 
ERB. 

Conduct  is  three  fourths  of  life. — MATTHEW  AR- 
NOLD. 

HY  the  doose  de  'e  'old  'is 
'ead  down  like  that?"  asked 
a  cockney  sergeant-major 
angrily,  when  a  worthy 
fellow  soldier  wished  to  be 
reinstated  in  a  position  from 
which  he  had  been  dismissed.  "  Has  'e  's 
been  han  hofficer  'e  hought  to  know  'ow  to 
be'ave  'isself  better.  What  use  'ud  'e  be 
has  a  non-commissioned  hofficer  hif  'e  didn't 
154 


FORTUNE   IN   GOOD   MANNERS      155 

dare  look  'is  men  in  the  face?  Hif  a  man 
wants  to  be  a  soldier,  hi  say,  let  'im  cock  'is 
chin  hup,  switch  'is  stick  abart  a  bit,  an 
give  a  crack  hover  the  'ead  to  hanybody 
who  comes  foolin'  round  'im,  helse  'e  might 
just  has  well  be  a  Methodist  parson." 

The  English  is  somewhat  rude,  but  it  ex- 
presses pretty  forcibly  the  fact  that  a  good 
bearing  is  indispensable  to  success  as  a  sol- 
dier. Mien  and  manner  have  much  to  do 
with  our  influence  and  reputation  in  any  walk 
of  life. 

"Don't  you  wish  you  had  my  power?" 
asked  the  East  Wind  of  the  Zephyr.  "  Why, 
when  I  start  they  hail  me  by  storm  signals 
all  along  the  coast.  I  can  twist  off  a  ship's 
mast  as  easily  as  you  can  waft  thistledown. 
With  one  sweep  of  my  wing  I  strew  the  coast 
from  Labrador  to  Cape  Horn  with  shattered 
ship  timber.  I  can  lift  and  have  often  lifted 
the  Atlantic.  I  am  the  terror  of  all  invalids, 
and  to  keep  me  from  piercing  to  the  very 
marrow  of  their  bones,  men  cut  down  forests 
for  their  fires  and  explore  the  mines  of  con- 
tinents for  coal  to  feed  their  furnaces.  Un- 
der my  breath  the  nations  crouch  in  sepul- 
chers.  Don't  you  wish  you  had  my  power  ?  " 

Zephyr  made  no  reply,  but  floated  from  out 


156     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

the  bowers  of  the  sky,  and  all  the  rivers  and 
lakes  and  seas,  all  the  forests  and  fields,  all 
the  beasts  and  birds  and  men  smiled  at  its 
coming-.  Gardens  bloomed,  orchards  ripened, 
silver  wheat-fields  turned  to  gold,  fleecy 
clouds  went  sailing  in  the  lofty  heaven,  the 
pinions  of  birds  and  the  sails  of  vessels  were 
gently  wafted  onward,  and  health  and  happi- 
ness were  everywhere.  The  foliage  and 
flowers  and  fruits  and  harvests,  the  warmth 
and  sparkle  and  gladness  and  beauty  and  life 
were  the  only  answer  Zephyr  gave  to  the  in- 
solent question  of  the  proud  but  pitiless  East 
Wind. 

The  story  goes  that  Queen  Victoria  once 
expressed  herself  to  her  husband  in  rather  a 
despotic  tone,  and  Prince  Albert,  whose 
manly  self-respect  was  smarting  at  her 
words,  sought  the  seclusion  of  his  own  apart- 
ment, closing  and  locking  the  door.  In  about 
five  minutes  some  one  knocked. 

"Who  is  it?"  inquired  the  Prince. 

"  It  is  I.  Open  to  the  Queen  of  England ! " 
haughtily  responded  her  Majesty.  There 
was  no  reply.  After  a  long  interval  there 
came  a  gentle  tapping  and  the  low  spoken 
words:  "It  is  I,  Victoria,  your  wife."  Is 
it  necessary  to  add  that  the  door  was  opened, 


FORTUNE  IN   GOOD   MANNERS      157 

or  that  the  disagreement  was  at  an  end?  It 
kS  said  that  civility  is  to  a  man  what  beauty 
ts  to  a  woman:  it  creates  an  instantaneous 
impression  in  his  behalf. 

The  monk  Basle,  according  to  a  quaint  old 
legend,  died  while  under  the  ban  of  excom- 
munication by  the  pope,  and  was  sent  in 
charge  of  an  angel  to  find  his  proper  place 
in  the  nether  world.  But  his  genial  disposi- 
tion and  great  conversational  powers  won 
friends  wherever  he  went.  The  fallen  angels 
adopted  his  manner,  and  even  the  good  an- 
gels went  a  long  way  to  see  him  and  live 
with  him.  He  was  removed  to  the  lowest 
depths  of  Hades,  but  with  the  same  result. 
His  inborn  politeness  and  kindness  of  heart 
were  irresistible,  and  he  seemed  to  change  the 
hell  into  a  heaven.  At  length  the  angel  re- 
turned with  the  monk,  saying  that  no  place 
could  be  found  in  which  to  punish  him.  He 
still  remained  the  same  Basle.  So  his  sen- 
tence was  revoked,  and  he  was  sent  to  Heaven 
and  canonized  as  a  saint. 

The  Duke  of  Marlborough  "wrote  Eng- 
lish badly  and  spelled  it  worse,"  yet  he 
swayed  the  destinies  of  empires.  The  charm 
of  his  manner  was  irresistible  and  influenced 
all  Europe.  His  fascinating  smile  and  win- 


158     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

ning  speech  disarmed  the  fiercest  hatred  and 
made  friends  of  the  bitterest  enemies. 

A  gentleman  took  his  daughter  of  sixteen 
to  Richmond  to  witness  the  trial  of  his  bitter 
personal  enemy,  Aaron  Burr,  whom  he  re- 
garded as  an  arch-traitor.  But  she  was  so 
fascinated  by  Burr's  charming  manner  that 
she  sat  with  his  friends.  Her  father  took 
her  from  the  courtroom,  and  locked  her  up, 
but  she  was  so  overcome  by  the  fine  manner 
of  the  accused  that  she  believed  in  his  inno- 
cence and  prayed  for  his  acquittal.  "  To  this 
day,"  said  she  fifty  years  afterwards,  "  I  feel 
the  magic  of  his  wonderful  deportment." 

Madame  Recamier  was  so  charming  that 
when  she  passed  around  the  box  at  the 
Church  St.  Roche  in  Paris,  twenty  thousand 
francs  were  put  into  it.  At  the  great  recep- 
tion to  Napoleon  on  his  return  from  Italy, 
the  crowd  caught  sight  of  this  fascinating 
woman  and  almost  forgot  to  look  at  the  great 
hero. 

"  Please,  Madame,"  whispered  a  servant  to 
Madame  de  Maintenon  at  dinner,  "  one  anec- 
dote more,  for  there  is  no  roast  to-day."  She 
was  so  fascinating  in  manner  and  speech  that 
her  guests  appeared  to  overlook  all  the  little 
discomforts  of  life. 


FORTUNE  IN  GOOD   MANNERS     159 

According  to  St.  Beuve,  the  privileged  cir- 
cle at  Coppet  after  making  an  excursion 
returned  from  Chambery  in  two  coaches. 
Those  arriving  in  the  first  coach  had  a  rue- 
ful experience  to  relate — a  terrific  thunder- 
storm, shocking  roads,  and  danger  and  gloom 
to  the  whole  company.  The  party  in  the  sec- 
ond coach  heard  their  story  with  surprise ;  of 
thunder-storm,  of  steeps,  of  mud,  of  danger, 
they  knew  nothing;  no,  they  had  forgotten 
earth,  and  breathed  a  purer  air;  such  a  con- 
versation between  Madame  de  Stael  and  Ma- 
dame Recamier  and  Benjamin  Constant  and 
Schlegel!  they  were  all  in  a  state  of  delight. 
The  intoxication  of  the  conversation  had 
made  them  insensible  to  all  notice  of  weather 
or  rough  roads.  "  If  I  were  Queen,"  said 
Madame  Tesse,  "  I  should  command  Madame 
de  Stael  to  talk  to  me  every  day."  "  When  she 
had  passed,"  as  Longfellow  wrote  of  Evange- 
line,  "  it  seemed  like  the  ceasing  of  exquisite 
music." 

Madame  de  Stael  was  anything  but  beau- 
tiful, but  she  possessed  that  indefinable  some- 
thing before  which  mere  conventional  beauty 
cowers,  commonplace  and  ashamed.  Her 
hold  upon  the  minds  of  men  was  wonderful. 
They  were  the  creatures  of  her  will,  and  she 


i6o     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

shaped  careers  as  if  she  were  omnipotent. 
Even  the  Emperor  Napoleon  feared  her  in- 
fluence over  his  people  so  much  that  he  de- 
stroyed her  writings  and  banished  her  from 
France. 

In  the  words  of  Whittier  it  could  be  said  of 
her  as  might  be  said  of  any  woman : — 

Our  homes  are  cheerier  for  her  sake, 
Our  door-yards  brighter  blooming, 

And  all  about  the  Asocial  air 
Is  sweeter  for  her  coming. 

A  guest  for  two  weeks  at  the  house  of 
Arthur  M.  Cavanaugh,  M.  P.,  who  was  with- 
out arms  or  legs,  was  very  desirous  of  know- 
ing how  he  fed  himself ;  but  the  conversation 
and  manner  of  the  host  were  so  charming 
that  the  visitor  was  scarcely  conscious  of  his 
deformity. 

"  When  Dickens  entered  a  room,"  said  one 
who  knew  him  well,  "  it  was  like  the  sudden 
kindling  of  a  big  fire,  by  which  every  one 
was  warmed/' 

It  is  said  that  when  Goethe  entered  a  res- 
taurant people  would  lay  down  their  knives 
and  forks  to  admire  him. 

Philip  of  Macedon,  after  hearing  the  re- 
port of  Demosthenes'  famous  oration,  said; 


FORTUNE  IN  GOOD   MANNERS      161 

"  Had  I  been  there  he  would  have  persuaded 
me  to  take  up  arms  against  myself." 

Henry  Clay  was  so  graceful  and  impressive 
in  his  manner  that  a  Pennsylvania  tavern- 
keeper  tried  to  induce  him  to  get  put  of  the 
stage-coach  in  which  they  were  riding,  and 
make  a  speech  to  himself  and  his  wife. 

"  I  don't  think  much  of  Choate's  spread- 
eagle  talk,"  said  a  simple-minded  member  of 
a  jury  that  had  given  five  successive  verdicts 
to  the  great  advocate ;  "  but  I  call  him  a  very 
lucky  lawyer,  for  there  was  not  one  of  those 
five  cases  that  came  before  us  where  he 
wasn't  on  the  right  side."  His  manner  as 
well  as  his  logic  was  irresistible. 

When  Edward  Everett  took  a  professor's 
chair  at  Harvard  after  five  years  of  study  in 
Europe,  he  was  almost  worshiped  by  the 
students.  His  manner  seemed  touched  by 
that  exquisite  grace  seldom  found  except  in 
women  of  rare  culture.  His  great  popular- 
ity lay  in  a  magical  atmosphere  which  every 
one  felt,  but  no  one  could  describe,  and  which 
never  left  him. 

A  New  York  lady  had  just  taken  her  seat 
in  a  car  on  a  train  bound  for  Philadelphia, 
when  a  somewhat  stout  man  sitting  just 
ahead  of  her  lighted  a  cigar.  She  coughed 


162     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

and  moved  uneasily;  but  the  hints  had  no 
effect,  so  she  said  tartly :  "  You  probably  are 
a  foreigner,  and  do  not  know  that  there  is 
a  smoking-car  attached  to  the  train.  Smok- 
ing is  not  permitted  here."  The  man  made 
no  reply,  but  threw  his  cigar  from  the  win- 
dow. What  was  her  astonishment  when  the 
conductor  told  her,  a  moment  later,  that  she 
had  entered  the  private  car  of  General  Grant. 
She  withdrew  in  confusion,  but  the  same  fine 
courtesy  which  led  him  to  give  up  his  cigar 
was  shown  again  as  he  spared  her  the  morti- 
fication of  even  a  questioning  glance,  still 
less  of  a  look  of  amusement,  although  she 
watched  his  dumb,  immovable  figure  with 
apprehension  until  she  reached  the  door. 

Julian  Ralph,  after  telegraphing  an  account 
of  President  Arthur's  fishing-trip  to  the 
Thousand  Islands,  returned  to  his  hotel  at 
two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  to  find  all  the 
doors  locked.  With  two  friends  who  had 
accompanied  him,  he  battered  at  a  side  door 
to  wake  the  servants,  but  what  was  his  cha- 
grin when  the  door  was  opened  by  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States ! 

"Why,  that's  all  right,"  said  Mr.  Arthur 
when  Mr.  Ralph  asked  his  pardon.  "You 
wouldn't  have  got  in  till  morning  if  I  had  not 


FORTUNE  IN  GOOD   MANNERS      163 

come.  No  one  is  up  in  the  house  but  me.  I 
could  have  sent  my  colored  boy,  but  he  had 
fallen  asleep  and  I  hated  to  wake  him." 

The  late  King  Edward,  when  Prince  of 
Wales,  the  first  gentleman  in  Europe,  invited 
an  eminent  man  to  dine  with  him.  When  cof- 
fee was  served,  the  guest,  to  the  consternation 
of  the  others,  drank  from  his  saucer.  An  open 
titter  of  amusement  went  round  the  table.  The 
Prince,  quickly  noting  the  cause  of  the  un- 
timely amusement,  gravely  emptied  his  cup 
into  his  saucer  and  drank  after  the  manner 
of  his  guest.  Silent  and  abashed,  the  other 
members  of  the  princely  household  took  the 
rebuke  and  did  the  same. 

Queen  Victoria  sent  for  Carlyle,  who  was 
a  Scotch  peasant,  offering  him  the  title  of 
nobleman,  which  he  declined,  feeling  that  he 
had  always  been  a  nobleman  in  his  own 
right.  He  understood  so  little  of  the  man- 
ners at  court  that,  when  presented  to  the 
Queen,  after  speaking  to  her  a  few  minutes, 
being  tired,  he  said,  "  Let  us  sit  down, 
madam ;"  whereat  the  courtiers  were  ready 
to  faint.  But  she  was  great  enough,  and  gave 
a  gesture  that  seated  all  her  puppets  in  a 
moment.  The  Queen's  courteous  suspension 
of  the  rules  of  etiquette,  and  what  it  may 


164     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

have  cost  her,  can  be  better  understood  from 
what  an  acquaintance  of  Carlyle  said  of  him 
when  he  saw  him  for  the  first  time.  "  His 
presence,  in  some  unaccountable  manner, 
rasped  the  nerves.  I  expected  to  meet  a  rare 
being,  and  I  left  him  feeling  as  if  I  had  drunk 
sour  wine,  or  had  had  an  attack  of  seasick- 
ness." 

Some  persons  wield  a  scepter  before  which 
others  seem  to  bow  in  glad  obedience.  But 
whence  do  they  obtain  such  magic  power? 
What  is  the  secret  of  that  almost  hypnotic 
influence  over  people  which  we  would  give 
anything  to  possess? 

Courtesy  is  not  always  found  in  high 
places.  Even  royal  courts  furnish  many  ex- 
amples of  bad  manners.  At  an  entertainment 
given  years  ago  by  Prince  Edward  and  the 
Princess  of  Wales,  to  which  only  the  very 
cream  of  the  cream  of  society  was  admitted, 
there  was  such  pushing  and  struggling  to  see 
the  Princess,  who  was  then  but  lately  married, 
that,  as  she  passed  through  the  reception 
rooms,  a  bust  of  the  Princess  Royal  was 
thrown  from  its  pedestal  and  damaged,  and 
the  pedestal  upset;  and  the  ladies,  in  their 
eagerness  to  see  the  Princess,  actually  stood 
upon  it. 


FORTUNE  IN   GOOD   MANNERS      165 

When  Catherine  of  Russia  gave  receptions 
to  her  nobles,  she  published  the  following 
rules  of  etiquette  upon  cards :  "  Gentlemen 
will  not  get  drunk  before  the  feast  is  ended. 
Noblemen  are  forbidden  to  strike  their  wives 
in  company.  Ladies  of  the  court  must  not 
wash  out  their  mouths  in  the  drinking- 
glasses,  or  wipe  their  faces  on  the  damask, 
or  pick  their  teeth  with  forks."  But  to-day 
the  nobles  of  Russia  have  no  superiors  in 
manners. 

Etiquette  originally  meant  the  ticket  or  tag 
tied  to  a  bag  to  indicate  its  contents.  If  a 
bag  had  this  ticket  it  was  not  examined. 
From  this  the  word  passed  to  cards  upon 
which  were  printed  certain  rules  to  be  ob- 
served by  guests.  These  rules  were  "  the 
ticket"  or  the  etiquette.  To  be  "the  ticket/' 
or,  as  it  was  sometimes  expressed,  to  act  or 
talk  by  the  card,  became  the  thing  with  the 
better  classes. 

It  was  fortunate  for  Napoleon  that  he 
married  Josephine  before  he  was  made  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  the  armies  of  Italy.  Her 
fascinating  manners  and  her  wonderful  pow- 
ers of  persuasion  were  more  influential  than 
the  loyalty  of  any  dozen  men  in  France  in 
attaching  to  him  the  adherents  who  would 


166     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

promote  his  interests.  Josephine  was  to  the 
drawing-room  and  the  salon  what  Napoleon 
was  to  the  field — a  preeminent  leader.  The 
secret  of  her  personality  that  made  her  the 
Empress  not  only  of'  the  hearts  of  the  French- 
men, but  also  of  the  nations  her  husband 
conquered,  has  been  beautifully  told  by  her- 
self. "  There  is  only  one  occasion,"  she  said 
to  a  friend,  "  in  which  I  would  voluntarily  use 
the  words,  '/  will!' — namely,  when  I  would 
say,  '  I  will  that  all  around  me  be  happy/  " 

"  It  was  only  a  glad  '  good-morning/ 

As  she  passed  along  the  way, 
But  it  spread  the  morning's  glory 
Over  the  livelong  day." 

A  fine  manner  more  than  compensates  for 
all  the  defects  of  nature.  The  most  fasci- 
nating person  is  always  the  one  of  most  win- 
ning manners,  not  the  one  of  greatest  physi- 
cal beauty.  The  Greeks  thought  beauty  was 
a  proof  of  the  peculiar  favor  of  the  gods,  and 
considered  that  beauty  only  worth  adorning 
and  transmitting  which  was  unmarred  by  out- 
ward manifestations  of  hard  and  haughty 
feeling.  According,  to  their  ideal,  beauty 
must  be  the  expression  of  attractive  qualities 
within — such  as  cheerfulness,  benignity,  con- 
tentment, charity,  and  love. 


FORTUNE   IN   GOOD   MANNERS      167 

Mirabeau  was  one  of  the  ugliest  men  in 
France.  It  was  said  he  had  "  the  face  of  a 
tiger  pitted  by  small-pox,"  but  the  charm  of 
his  manner  was  almost  irresistible. 

Beauty  of  life  and  character,  as  in  art,  has 
no  sharp  angles.  Its  lines  seem  continuous, 
so  gently  does  curve  melt  into  curve.  It  is 
sharp  angles  that  keep  many  souls  from  be- 
ing beautiful  that  are  almost  so.  Our  good 
is  less  good  when  it  is  abrupt,  rude,  ill  timed, 
or  ill  placed.  Many  a  man  and  woman  might 
double  their  influence  and  success  by  a  kindly 
courtesy  and  a  fine  manner. 

Tradition  tells  us  that  before  Apelles 
painted  his  wonderful  Goddess  of  Beauty 
which  enchanted  all  Greece,  he  traveled  for 
years  observing  fair  women,  that  he  might 
embody  in  his  matchless  Venus  a  combina- 
tion of  the  loveliest  found  in  all.  So  the 
good-mannered  study,  observe,  and  adopt  all 
that  is  finest  and  most  worthy  of  imitation  in 
every  cultured  person  they  meet. 

Throw  a  bone  to  a  dog,  said  a  shrewd  ob~- 
server,  and  he  will  run  off  with  it  in  his 
mouth,  but  with  no  vibration  in  his  tail.  Call 
the  dog  to  you,  pat  him  on  the  head,  let  him 
take  the  bone  from  your  hand,  and  his  tail 
will  wag  with  gratitude.  The  dog  recognizes 


168     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

the  good  deed  and  the  gracious  manner  of 
doing  it.  Those  who  throw  their  good  deeds 
should  not  expect  them  to  be  caught  with  a 
thankful  smile. 

"Ask  a  person  at  Rome  to  show  you  the 
road/'  said  Dr.  Guthrie  of  Edinburgh,  "  and 
he  will  always  give  you  a  civil  and  polite  an- 
swer; but  ask  any  person  a  question  for  that 
purpose  in  this  country  [Scotland],  and  he 
will  say,  '  Follow  your  nose  and  you  will  find 
it.'  But  the  blame  is  with  the  upper  classes; 
and  the  reason  why,  in  this  country,  the 
lower  classes  are  not  polite  is  because  the 
upper  classes  are  not  polite.  I  remember  how 
astonished  I  was  the  first  time  I  was  in  Paris. 
I  spent  the  first  night  with  a  banker,  who 
took  me  to  a  pension,  or,  as  we  call  it,  a 
boarding-house.  When  we  got  there,  a  serv- 
ant girl  came  to  the  door,  and  the  banker 
took  off  his  hat,  and  bowed  to  the  servant 
girl,  and  called  her  mademoiselle,  as  though 
she  were  a  lady.  Now,  the  reason  why  the 
lower  classes  there  are  so  polite  is  because 
the  upper  classes  are  polite  and  civil  to 
them." 

A  fine  courtesy  is  a  fortune  in  itself.  The 
good-mannered  can  do  without  riches,  for 
they  have  passports  everywhere.  All  doors 


FORTUNE  IN   GOOD  MANNERS     169 

fly  open  to  them,  and  they  enter  without 
money  and  without  price.  They  can  enjoy 
nearly  everything  without  the  trouble  of  buy- 
ing or  owning.  They  are  as  welcome  in 
every  household  as  the  sunshine;  and  why 
not?  for  they  carry  light,  sunshine,  and  joy 
everywhere.  They  disarm  jealousy  and  envy, 
for  they  bear  good  will  to  everybody.  Bees 
will  not  sting  a  man  smeared  with  honey. 

"  A  man's  own  good  breeding,"  says  Ches- 
terfield, "  is  the  best  security  against  other 
people's  ill  manners.  It  carries  along  with  it 
a  dignity  that  is  respected  by  the  most  petu- 
lant. Ill  breeding  invites  and  authorizes  the 
familiarity  of  the  most  timid.  No  man  ever 
said  a  pert  thing  to  the  Duke  of  Marlbor- 
ough,  or  a  civil  one  to  Sir  Robert  Walpole." 

The  true  gentleman  cannot  harbor  those 
qualities  which  excite  the  antagonism  of 
others,  as  revenge,  hatred,  malice,  envy,  or 
jealousy,  for  these  poison  the  sources  of  spir- 
itual life  and  shrivel  the  soul.  Generosity  of 
heart  and  a  genial  good  will  towards  all  are 
absolutely  essential  to  him  who  would  possess 
fine  manners.  Here  is  a  man  who  is  cross, 
crabbed,  moody,  sullen,  silent,  sulky,  stingy, 
and  mean  with  his  family  and  servants.  He 
refuses  his  wife  a  little  money  to  buy  =» 


170    PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

needed  dress,  and  accuses  her  of  extrava- 
gance  that  would  ruin  a  millionaire.  Sud- 
denly the  bell  rings.  Some  neighbors  call: 
what  a  change!  The  bear  of  a  moment  ago 
is  as  docile  as  a  lamb.  As  by  magic  he  be- 
comes talkative,  polite,  generous.  After  the 
callers  have  gone,  his  little  girl  begs  her 
father  to  keep  on  his  "company  manners" 
for  a  little  while,  but  the  sullen  mood  re- 
turns and  his  courtesy  vanishes  as  quickly  as 
it  came.  He  is  the  same  disagreeable,  con- 
temptible, crabbed  bear  as  before  the  arrival 
of  his  guests. 

What  friend  of  the  great  Dr.  Johnson  did 
not  feel  mortified  and  pained  to  see  him  eat 
like  an  Esquimau,  and  to  hear  him  call  men 
"  liars  "  because  they  did  not  agree  with  him  ? 
He  was  called  the  "  Ursa  Major,"  or  Great 
Bear. 

Benjamin  Rush  said  that  when  Gold- 
smith at  a  banquet  in  London  asked  a  ques- 
tion about  "the  American  Indians,"  Dr. 
Johnson  exclaimed :  "  There  is  not  an  Indian 
in  North  America  foolish  enough  to  ask  such 
a  question."  "  Sir,"  replied  Goldsmith,  "  there 
is  not  a  savage  in  America  rude  enough  to 
make  such  a  speech  to  a  gentleman." 

After  Stephen  A.  Douglas  had  been  abused 


FORTUNE   IN    GOOD   MANNERS     171 

in  the  Senate  he  rose  and  said :  "  What  no 
gentleman  should  say  no  gentleman  need  an- 
swer." 

Aristotle  thus  described  a  real  gentleman 
more  than  two  thousand  years  ago:  "The 
magnanimous  man  will  behave  with  modera- 
tion under  both  good  fortune  and  bad.  He 
wall  not  allow  himself  to  be  exalted;  he  will 
not  allow  himself  to  be,  abased.  He  will 
neither  be  delighted  with  success,  nor  grieved 
with  failure.  He  will  never  choose  danger, 
nor  seek  it.  He  is  not  given  to  talk  about 
himself  or  others.  He  does  not  care  that  he 
himself  should  be  praised,  nor  that  other  peo- 
ple should  be  blamed." 

A  gentleman  is  just  a  gentle  man :  no  more, 
no  less;  a  diamond  polished  that  was  first  a 
diamond  in  the  rough.  A  gentleman  is  gen- 
tle, modest,  courteous,  slow  to  take  offense, 
and  never  giving  it.  He  is  slow  to  surmise 
evil,  as  he  never  thinks  it.  He  subjects  his 
appetites,  refines  his  tastes,  subdues  his  feel- 
ings, controls  his  speech,  and  deems  every 
other  person  as  good  as  himself.  A  gentle- 
man, like  porcelain-ware,  must  be  painted  be- 
fore he  is  glazed.  There  can  be  no  change 
after  it  is  burned  in,  and  all  that  is  put  on 
afterwards  will  wash  off.  He  who  has  lost 


172     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

all  but  retains  his  courage,  cheerfulness,  hope, 
virtue,  and  self-respect,  is  a  true  gentleman, 
and  is  rich  still. 

"  You  replace  Dr.  Franklin,  I  hear,"  said 
the  French  Minister,  Count  de  Vergennes,  to 
Mr.  Jefferson,  who  had  been  sent  to  Paris  to 
relieve  our  most  popular  representative.  "  I 
succeed  him ;  no  man  can  replace  him,"  was 
the  felicitous  reply  of  the  man  who  became 
highly  esteemed  by  the  most  polite  court  in 
Europe. 

"  You  should  not  have  returned  their  sa- 
lute," said  the  master  of  ceremonies,  when 
Clement  XIV.  bowed  to  the  ambassadors 
who  had  bowed  in  congratulating  him  upon 
his  election.  "  Oh,  I  beg  your  pardon,"  re- 
plied Clement.  "  I  have  not  been  pope  long 
enough  to  forget  good  manners." 

Cowper  says: — 

A  modest,  sensible,  and  well-bred  man 
Would  not  insult  me,  and  no  other  can. 

"  I  never  listen  to  calumnies,"  said  Mon- 
tesquieu, "  because  if  they  are  untrue  I  run 
the  risk  of  being  deceived,  and  if  they  are 
true,  of  hating  people  not  worth  thinking 
about." 

"  I  think,"  says  Emerson,  "  Hans  Ander- 


FORTUNE   IN    GOOD   MANNERS     173 

sen's  story  of  the  cobweb  cloth  woven  so  fine 
that  it  was  invisible — woven  for  the  king's 
garment — must  mean  manners,  which  do 
really  clothe  a  princely  nature." 

No  one  can  fully  estimate  how  great  a 
factor  in  life  is  the  possession  of  good  man- 
ners, or  timely  thoughtfulness  with  human 
sympathy  behind  it.  They  are  the  kindly 
fruit  of  a  refined  nature,  and  are  the  open 
sesame  to  the  best  of  society.  Manners  are 
what  vex  or  soothe,  exalt  or  debase,  barba- 
rize or  refine  us  by  a  constant,  steady,  uni- 
form, invincible  operation  like  that  of  the  air 
we  breathe.  Even  power  itself  has  not  half 
the  might  of  gentleness,  that  subtle  oil  which 
lubricates  our  relations  with  each  other,  and 
enables  the  machinery  of  society  to  perform 
its  functions,  without  friction. 

"  Have  you  not  seen  in  the  woods,  in  a 
late  autumn  morning,"  asks  Emerson,  "  a 
poor  fungus,  or  mushroom, — a  plant  without 
any  solidity,  nay,  that  seemed  nothing  but  a 
soft  mush  or  jelly, — by  its  constant,  total,  and 
inconceivably  gentle  pushing,  manage  to 
break  its  way  up  through  the  frosty  ground, 
and  actually  to  lift  a  hard  crust  on  its  head? 
It  is  the  symbol  of  the  power  of  kind- 
ness." 


174     PUSHING   TO   THE  FRONT 

"There  is  no  policy  like  politeness,"  says 
Magoon ;  "  since  a  good  manner  often  suc- 
ceeds where  the  best  tongue  has  failed."  The 
art  of  pleasing  is  the  art  of  rising  in  the 
world. 

The  politest  people  in  the  world,  it  is  said, 
are  the  Jews.  In  all  ages  they  have  been 
maltreated  and  reviled,  and  despoiled  of  their 
civil  privileges  and  their  social  rights ;  yet  are 
they  everywhere  polite  and  affable.  They  in- 
dulge in  few  or  no  recriminations;  are  faith- 
ful to  old  associations;  more  considerate  of 
the  prejudices  of  others  than  others  are  of 
theirs;  not  more  worldly-minded  and  money- 
loving  than  people  generally  are;  and,  every- 
thing considered,  they  surpass  all  nations  in 
courtesy,  affability,  and  forbearance. 

"  Men,  like  bullets,"  says  Richter,  "  go  far- 
thest when  they  are  smoothest." 

Napoleon  was  much  displeased  on  hearing 
that  Josephine  had  permitted  General  Lorges, 
a  young  and  handsome  man,  to  sit  beside  her 
on  the  sofa.  Josephine  explained  that,  in- 
stead of  its  being  General  Lorges,  it  was  one 
of  the  aged  generals  of  his  army,  entirely  un- 
used to  the  customs  of  courts.  She  was  un- 
willing to  wound  the  feelings  of  the  honest 
pld  soldier,  and  so  allowed  him  to  retain  his 


/ 


FORTUNE  IN   GOOD  MANNERS     175 

seat.  Napoleon  commended  her  highly  for 
her  courtesy. 

President  Jefferson  was  one  day  riding 
with  his  grandson,  when  they  met  a  slave, 
who  took  off  his  hat  and  bowed.  The  Presi- 
dent returned  the  salutation  by  raising  his 
hat,  but  the  grandson  ignored  the  civility  of 
the  negro.  "  Thomas,"  said  the  grandfather, 
"  do  you  permit  a  slave  to  be  more  of  a  gen- 
tleman than  yourself?" 

"  Lincoln  was  the  first  great  man  I  talked 
with  freely  in  the  United  States,"  said  Fred 
Douglass,  "  who  in  no  single  instance  re- 
minded me  of  the  difference  between  himself 
and  me,  of  the  difference  in  color." 

"  Eat  at  your  own  table,"  says  Confucius, 
"  as  you  would  eat  at  the  table  of  the  king." 
If  parents  were  not  careless  about  the  man- 
ners of  their  children  at  home,  they  would 
seldom  be  shocked  or  embarrassed  at 'their 
behavior  abroad. 

James  Russell  Lowell  was  as  courteous  to 
a  beggar  as  to  a  lord,  and  was  once  observed 
holding  a  long  conversation  in  Italian  with 
an  organ-grinder  whom  he  was  questioning 
about  scenes  in  Italy  with  which  they  were 
each  familiar. 

In  hastily    turning  the  corner  of  a  crooked 


176    PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

street  in  London,  a  young  lady  ran  with  great 
force  against  a  ragged  beggar-boy  and  al- 
most knocked  him  down.  Stopping  as  soon 
as  she  could,  she  turned  around  and  said  very 
kindly :  "  I  beg  your  pardon,  my  little  fel- 
low ;  I  am  very  sorry  that  I  ran  against  you/' 
The  astonished  boy  looked  at  her  a  moment, 
and  then,  taking  off  about  three  quarters  of 
a  cap,  made  a  low  bow  and  said,  while  a 
broad,  pleasant  smile  overspread  his  face: 
"  You  have  my  parding,  miss,  and  welcome, — 
and  welcome;  and  the  next  time  you  run 
ag'in*  me,  you  can  knock  me  clean  down  and 
I  won't  say  a  word."  After  the  lady  had 
passed  on,  he  said  to  a  companion :  "  I  say, 
Jim,  it's  the  first  time  I  ever  had  anybody  ask 
my  parding,  and  it  kind  o'  took  me  off  my 
feet." 

"  Respect  the  burden,  madame,  respect  the 
burden,"  said  Napoleon,  as  he  courteously 
stepped  aside  at  St.  Helena  to  make  way  for 
a  laborer  bending  under  a  heavy  load,  while 
his  companion  seemed  inclined  to  keep  the 
narrow  path. 

A  Washington  politician  went  to  visit 
Daniel  Webster  at  Marshfield,  Mass.,  and,  in 
taking  a  short  cut  to  the  house,  came  to  a 
stream  which  he  could  not  cross.  Calling  to 


FORTUNE   IN    GOOD  MANNERS     177 

a  rough-looking  farmer  near  by,  he  offered  a 
quarter  to  be  carried  to  the  other  side.  The 
farmer  took  the  politician  on  his  broad  should- 
ers and  landed  him  safely,  but  would  not  take 
the  quarter.  The  old  rustic  presented  himself 
at  the  house  a  few  minutes  later,  and  to  the 
great  surprise  and  chagrin  of  the  visitor  was 
introduced  as  Mr.  Webster. 

Garrison  was  as  polite  to  the  furious  mob 
that  tore  his  clothes  from  his  back  and  dragged 
him  through  the  streets  as  he  could  have  been 
to  a  king.  He  was  one  of  the  serenest  souls 
that  ever  lived.  Christ  was  courteous,  even 
to  His  persecutors,  and  in  terrible  agony  on 
the  cross  He  cried :  "  Father,  forgive  them, 
for  they  know  not  what  they  do."  St.  Paul's 
speech  before  Agrippa  is  a  model  of  dignified 
courtesy,  as  well  as  of  persuasive  eloquence. 

Good  manners  often  prove  a  fortune  to  a 
young  man.  Mr.  Butler,  a  merchant  in  Prov- 
idence, R.  I.,  had  once  closed  his  store  and 
was  on  his  way  home  when  he  met  a  little 
girl  who  wanted  a  spool  of  thread.  He  went 
back,  opened  the  store,  and  got  the  thread. 
This  little  incident  was  talked  of  all  about  the 
city  and  brought  him  hundreds  of  customers. 
He  became  very  wealthy,  largely  because  of 
his  courtesy. 


178    PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

Ross  Winans  of  Baltimore  owed  his  great 
success  and  fortune  largely  to  his  courtesy  to 
two  foreign  strangers.  Although  his  was  but 
a  fourth-rate  factory,  his  great  politeness  in 
explaining  the  minutest  details  to  his  visitors 
was  in  such  marked  contrast  with  the  limited 
attention  they  had  received  in  large  establish- 
ments that  it  won  their  esteeem.  The  strang- 
ers were  Russians  sent  by  their  Czar,  who 
later  invited  Mr.  Winans  to  establish  locomo- 
tive works  in  Russia.  He  did  so,  and  soon 
his  profits  resulting  from  his  politeness  were 
more  than.  $100,000  a  year. 

A  poor  curate  saw  a  crowd  of  rough  boys 
and  men  laughing  and  making  fun  of  two 
aged  spinsters  dressed  in  antiquated  costume. 
The  ladies  were  embarrassed  and  did  not  dare 
enter  the  church.  The  curate  pushed  through 
the  crowd,  conducted  them  up  the  central 
aisle,  and  amid  the  titter  of  the  congregation, 
gave  them  choice  seats.  These  old  ladies 
although  strangers  to  him,  at  their  death  left 
the  gentle  curate  a  large  fortune.  Courtesy 
pays. 

Not  long  ago  a  lady  met  the  late  President 
Humphrey  of  Amherst  College,  and  she  was 
so  much  pleased  with  his  great  politeness  that 
she  gave  a  generous  donation  to  the  college. 


FORTUNE  IN   GOOD  MANNERS 

"  Why  did  our  friend  never  succeed  in 
business?"  asked  a  man  returning  to  New 
York  after  years  of  absence;  "he  had  suffi- 
cient capital,  a  thorough  knowledge  of  his 
business,  and  exceptional  shrewdness  and  sa- 
gacity." "  He  was  sour  and  morose,"  was  the 
reply ;  "  he  always  suspected  his  employees  of 
cheating  him,  and  was  discourteous  to  his 
customers.  Hence,  no  man  ever  put  good  will 
or  energy  into  work  done  for  him,  and  his 
patrons  went  to  shops  where  they  were  sure 
of  civility." 

Some  men  almost  work  their  hands  off  and 
deny  themselves  many  of  the  common  com- 
forts of  life  in  their  earnest  efforts  to  suc- 
ceed, and  yet  render  success  impossible  by 
their  cross-grained  ungentlemanliness.  They 
repel  patronage,  and,  naturally,  business 
which  might  easily  be  theirs  goes  to  others 
who  are  really  less  deserving  but  more  com- 
panionable. 

Bad  manners  often  neutralize  even  honesty, 
industry,  and  the  greatest  energy;  while 
agreeable  manners  win  in  spite  of  other  de- 
fects. Take  two  men  possessing  equal  ad- 
vantages in  every  other  respect;  if  one  be 
gentlemanly,  kind,  obliging,  and  conciliating, 
and  the  other  disobliging,  rude,  harsh,  and 


i8o     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

insolent,  the  former  will  become  rich  while 
the  boorish  one  will  starve. 

A  fine  illustration  of  the  business  value  of 
good  manners  is  found  in  the  Bon  Marche,  an 
enormous  establishment  in  Paris  where  thou- 
sands of  clerks  are  employed,  and  where  al- 
most everything  is  kept  for  sale.  The  two 
distinguishing  characteristics  of  the  house  are 
one  low  price  to  all,  and  extreme  courtesy. 
Mere  politeness  is  not  enough;  the  employees 
must  try  in  every  possible  way  to  please  and 
to  make  customers  feel  at  home.  Something 
more  must  be  done  than  is  done  in  other 
stores,  so  that  every  visitor  will  remember 
the  Bon  Marche  with  pleasure.  By  this  course 
the  business  has  been  developed  until  it  is  said 
to  be  the  largest  of  the  kind  in  the  world. 

"Thank  you,  my  dear;  please  call  again," 
spoken  to  a  little  beggar-girl  who  bought  a 
pennyworth  of  snuff  proved  a  profitable  ad- 
vertisement and  made  Lundy  Foote  a  million- 
aire. 

Many  persons  of  real  refinement  are 
thought  to  be  stiff,  proud,  reserved,  and 
haughty  who  are  not,  but  are  merely  diffi- 
dent and  shy. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  diffidence  often  be- 
trays us  into  discourtesies  which  our  hearts? 


FORTUNE  IN   GOOD  MANNERS     iSi 

abhor,  and  which  cause  us  intense  mortifica- 
tion and  embarrassment.  Excessive  shyness 
must  be  overcome  as  an  obstacle  to  perfect 
manners.  It  is  peculiar  to  the  Anglo-Saxon 
and  the  Teutonic  races,  and  has  frequently 
been  a  barrier  to  the  highest  culture.  It  is  a 
disease  of  the  finest  organizations  and  the 
highest  types  of  humanity.  It  never  attacks 
the  coarse  and  vulgar. 

Sir  Isaac  Newton  was  the  shyest  man  of 
his  age.  He  did  not  acknowledge  his  great 
discovery  for  years  just  for  fear  of  attract- 
ing attention  to  himself.  He  would  not 
allow  his  name  to  be  used  in  connection 
with  his  theory  of  the  moon's  motion,  for 
fear  it  would  increase  the  acquaintances  he 
would  have  to  meet.  George  Washington 
was  awkward  and  shy  and  had  the  air  of  a 
countryman.  Archbishop  Whately  was  so  shy 
that  he  would  escape  notice  whenever  it  was 
possible.  At  last  he  determined  to  give  up 
trying  to  cure  his  shyness ;  "  for  why,"  he 
asked,  "  should  I  endure  this  torture  all  my 
life?"  when,  to  his  surprise,  it  almost  entirely 
disappeared.  Elihu  Burritt  was  so  shy  that 
he  would  hide  in  the  cellar  when  his  parents 
had  company. 

Practise  on  the  stage  or  lecture  platform 


182     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

does  not  always  eradicate  shyness.  David 
Garrick,  the  great  actor,  was  once  summoned 
to  testify  in  court;  and,  though  he  had  acted 
for  thirty  years  with  marked  self-possession, 
he  was  so  confused  and  embarrassed  that  the 
judge  dismissed  him.  John  B.  Gough  said 
that  he  could  not  rid  himself  of  his  early  dif- 
fidence and  shrinking  from  public  notice.  He 
said  that  he  never  went  on  the  platform  with- 
out fear  and  trembling,  and  would  often  be 
covered  with  cold  perspiration. 

There  are  many  worthy  people  who  are 
brave  on  the  street,  who  would  walk  up  to  a 
cannon's  mouth  in  battle,  but  who  are  tow- 
ards in  the  drawing-room,  and  dare  not  ex- 
press an  opinion  in  the  social  circle.  They 
feel  conscious  of  a  subtle  tryanny  in  society's 
code,  which  locks  their  lips  and  ties  their 
tongues.  Addison  was  one  of  the  purest  writ- 
ers of  English  and  a  perfect  master  of  the 
pen,  but  he  could  scarcely  utter  a  dozen  words 
in  conversation  without  being  embarrassed. 
Shakespeare  was  very  shy.  He  retired  from 
London  at  forty,  and  did  not  try  to  publish 
or  preserve  one  of  his  plays.  He  took  second- 
or  third-rate  parts  on  account  of  his  diffi- 
dence. 

Generally    shyness    comes    from    a   person 


FORTUNE   IN    GOOD   MANNERS     183 

thinking  too  much  about  himself — which  in 
itself  is  a  breach  of  good  breeding — and  won- 
dering what  other  people  think  about  him. 

"  I  was  once  very  shy,"  said  Sydney  Smith, 
"  but  it  was  not  long  before  I  made  two  very 
useful  discoveries :  first,  that  all  mankind  were 
not  solely  employed  in  observing  me;  and 
next,  that  shamming  was  of  no  use ;  that  the 
world  was  very  clear-sighted,  and  soon  esti- 
mated a  man  at  his  true  value.  This  cured 
me." 

What  a  misfortune  it  is  to  go  through  life 
apparently  encased  in  ice,  yet  all  the  while 
full  of  kindly,  cordial  feeling  for  one's  fellow 
menl  Shy  people  are  always  distrustful  of 
their  powers  and  look  upon  their  lack  of  con- 
fidence as  a  weakness  or  lack  of  ability,  when 
it  may  indicate  quite  the  reverse.  By  teach- 
ing children  early  the  arts  of  social  life,  such 
as  boxing,  horseback  riding,  dancing,  elocu- 
tion, and  similar  accomplishments,  we  may  do 
much  to  overcome  the  sense  of  shyness. 

Shy  people  should  dress  well.  Good  clothes 
give  ease  of  manner,  and  unlock  the  tongue. 
The  consciousness  of  being  well  dressed  gives 
a  grace  and  ease  of  manner  that  even  religion 
will  not  bestow,  while  inferiority  of  garb  of- 
ten induces  restraint.  As  peculiarities  in  ap- 


184     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

parel  are  sure  to  attract  attention,  it  is  well  to 
avoid  bright  colors  and  fashionable  extremes, 
and  wear  plain,  well-fitting  garments  of  as 
good  material  as  the  purse  will  afford. 

Beauty  in  dress  is  a  good  thing,  rail  at  it 
who  may.  But  it  is  a  lower  beauty,  for  which 
3.  higher  beauty  should  not  be  sacrificed.  They 
love  dress  too  much  who  give  it  their  first 
thought,  their  best  time,  or  all  their  money; 
who  for  it  neglect  the  culture  of  the  mind  or 
heart,  or  the  claims  of  others  on  their  serv- 
ice; who  care  more  for  dress  than  for  their 
character;  who  are  troubled  more  by  an 
unfashionable  garment  than  by  a  neglected 
duty. 

When  Ezekiel  Whitman,  a  prominent  law- 
yer and  graduate  of  Harvard,  was  elected  to 
the  Massachusetts  legislature,  he  came  to  Bos- 
ton from  his  farm  in  countryman's  dress,  and 
went  to  a  hotel  in  Boston.  He  entered  the 
parlor  and  sat  down,  when  he  overheard  the 
remark  between  some  ladies  and  gentlemen: 
"Ah,  here  comes  a  real  homespun  country- 
man. Here's  fun."  They  asked  him  all  sorts 
of  queer  questions,  tending  to  throw  ridicule 
upon  him,  when  he  arose  and  said,  "  Ladies 
and  gentlemen,  permit  me  to  wish  you  health 
and  happiness,  and  may  you  grow  better  and 


FORTUNE   IN    GOOD  MANNERS     185 

wiser  in  advancing  years,  bearing  in  mind 
that  outward  appearances  are  deceitful.  You 
mistook  me,  from  my  dress,  for  a  country  4 
booby;  while  I,  from  the  same  superficial 
cause,  thought  you  were  ladies  and  gentlemen. 
The  mistake  has  been  mutual."  Just  then 
Governor  Caleb  Strong  entered  and  called  to 
Mr.  Whitman,  who,  turning  to  the  dum- 
founded  company,  said :  "  I  wish  you  a  very 
good  evening." 

"  In  civilized  society,"  says  Johnson,  "  ex- 
ternal advantages  make  us  more  respected.  A 
man  with  a  good  coat  upon  his  back  meets 
with  a  better  reception  than  he  who  has  a  bad 
one." 

One  cannot  but  feel  that  God  is  a  lover  of 
the  beautiful.  He  has  put  robes  of  beauty 
and  glory  upon  all  his  works.  Every  flower 
is  dressed  in  richness;  every  field  blushes  be- 
neath a  mantle  of  beauty ;  every  star  is  veiled 
in  brightness;  every  bird  is  clothed  in  the 
habiliments  of  the  most  exquisite  taste. 

Some  people  look  upon  polished  manners 
as  a  kind  of  affectation.  They  claim  admira- 
tion for  plain,  solid,  square,  rugged  charac- 
ters. They  might  as  well  say  that  they  like 
square,  plain,  unornamented  houses  made 
from  square  blocks  of  stone.  St.  Peter's  is 


186     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

none  the  less  strong  and  solid  because  of  its 
elegant  columns  and  the  magnificent  sweep  of 
its  arches,  its  carved  and  fretted  marbles  of 
matchless  hues. 

Our  manners,  like  our  characters,  are  al- 
ways under  inspection.  Every  time  we  go  into 
society  we  must  step  on  the  scales  of  each  per- 
son's opinion,  and  the  loss  or  gain  from  our 
last  weight  is  carefully  noted.  Each  mentally 
asks,  "  Is  this  person  going  up  or  down  ? 
Through  how  many  grades  has  he  passed?" 
For  example,  young  Brown  enters  a  drawing- 
room.  All  present  weigh  him  in  their  judg- 
ment and  silently  say,  "This  young  man  is 
gaining;  he  is  more  careful,  thoughtful,  po- 
lite, considerate,  straightforward,  industri- 
ous." Beside  him  stands  young  Jones.  It  is 
evident  that  he  is  losing  ground  rapidly.  He 
is  careless,  indifferent,  rough,  does  not  look 
you  in  the  eye,  is  mean,  stingy,  snaps  at  the 
servants,  yet  is  over-polite  to  strangers. 

And  so  we  go  through  life,  tagged  with 
these  invisible  labels  by  all  who  know  us.  I 
sometimes  think  it  would  be  a  great  advan- 
tage if  one  could  read  these  ratings  of  his 
associates.  We  cannot  long  deceive  the 
world,  for  that  other  self,  who  ever  stands  in 
the  shadow  of  ourselves  holding  the  scales  of 


FORTUNE   IN    GOOD   MANNERS     187 

justice,  that  telltale  in  the  soul,  rushes  to  the 
eye  or  into  the  manner  and  betrays  us. 

But  manners,  while  they  are  the  garb  of 
the  gentleman,  do  not  constitute  or  finally  de- 
termine his  character.  Mere  politeness  can 
never  be  a  substitute  for  moral  excellence, 
any  more  than  the  bark  can  take  the  place  of 
the  heart  of  the  oak.  It  may  well  indicate  the 
kind  of  wood  below,  but  not  always  whether 
it  be  sound  or  decayed.  Etiquette  is  but  a 
substitute  for  good  manners  and  is  often  but 
their  mere  counterfeit. 

Sincerity  is  the  highest  quality  of  good 
manners. 

The  following  recipe  is  recommended  to 
those  who  wish  to  acquire  genuine  good  man- 
ners : — 

Of  Unselfishness,  three  drachms; 

Of  the  tincture  of  Good  Cheer,  one  ounce ; 

Of  Essence  of  Heart's-Ease,  three  drachms ; 

Of  the  Extract  of  the  Rose  of  Sharon,  four 
ounces ; 

Of  the  Oil  of  Charity,  three  drachms,  and 
no  scruples; 

Of  the  Infusion  of  Common  Sense  and 
Tact,  one  ounce; 

Of  the  Spirit  of  Love,  two  ounces. 


i88     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

The  Mixture  to  be  taken  whenever  there  is 
the  slightest  symptom  of  selfishness,  exclu- 
siveness,  meanness,  or  I-am-better-than-you- 
ness. 

Pattern  after  Him  who  gave  the  Golden 
Rule,  and  who  was  the  first  true  gentleman 
that  ever  breathed. 


IX.    THE    TRIUMPHS    OF    ENTHUSI- 
ASM 

The  labor  we  delight  in  physics  pain. — SHAKE- 
SPEARE. 

The  only  conclusive  evidence  of  a  man's  sincer- 
ity is  that  he  gives  himself  for  a  principle.  Words, 
money,  all  things  else  are  comparatively  easy  to  give 
away ;  but  when  a  man  makes  a  gift  of  his  daily  Ufe 
and  practise,  it  is  plain  that  the  truth,  whatever  it 
may  be,  has  taken  possession  of  him. — LOWELL. 

Let  us  beware  of  losing  our  enthusiasm.  Let  us 
ever  glory  in  something,  and  strive  to  retain  our 
admiration  for  all  that  would  ennoble,  and  our  in- 
terest in  all  that  would  enrich  and  beautify  our  life. 

PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

N  the  Galerie  des  Beaux 
Arts  in  Paris  is  a  beauti- 
ful statue  conceived  by  a 
sculptor  who  was  so  poor 
that  he  lived  and  worked 
in  a  small  garret.  When 
his  clay  model  was  nearly  done,  a  heavy  frost 
fell  upon  the  city.  He  knew  that  if  the  water 
in  the  interstices  of  the  clay  should  freeze, 
the  beautiful  lines  would  be  distorted.  So  he 
wrapped  his  bedclothes  around  the  clay  image. 
In  the  morning  he  was  found  dead,  but  his 
idea  was  saved,  and  other  hands  gave  it  en- 
during form  in  marble. 
189 


190     PUSHING   TO   THE  FRONT 

"  I  do  not  know  how  it  is  with  others  when 
speaking  on  an  important  question/'  said 
Henry  Clay ;  "  but  on  such  occasions  I  seem 
to  be  unconscious  of  the  external  world. 
Wholly  engrossed  by  the  subject  before  me, 
I  lose  all  sense  of  personal  identity,  of  time, 
or  of  surrounding  objects." 

"A  bank  never  becomes  very  successful," 
says  a  noted  financier,  "  until  it  gets  a  presi- 
dent who  takes  it  to  bed  with  him."  En- 
thusiasm gives  the  otherwise  dry  and  unin- 
teresting subject  or  occupation  a  new  mean- 
ing. 

As  the  young  lover  has  finer  sense  and 
more  acute  vision  and  sees  in  the  object  of  his 
affections  a  hundred  virtues  and  charms  in- 
visible to  all  other  eyes,  so  a  man  permeated 
with  enthusiasm  has  his  power  of  perception 
heightened  and  his  vision  magnified  until  he 
sees  beauty  and  charms  others  cannot  discern 
which  compensate  for  drudgery,  privations, 
hardships,  and  even  persecution.  Dickens 
says  he  was  haunted,  possessed,  spirit-driven 
by  the  plots  and  characters  in  his  stories 
which  would  not  let  him  sleep  or  rest  until 
he  had  committed  them  to  paper.  On  one 
sketch  he  shut  himself  up  for  a  month,  and 
when  he  came  out  he  looked  as  haggard  as  a 


TRIUMPHS    OF    ENTHUSIASM     191 

murderer.  His  characters  haunted  him  day 
and  night. 

"  Herr  Capellmeister,  I  should  like  to  com- 
pose something;  how  shall  I  begin?"  asked  a 
youth  of  twelve  who  had  played  with  great 
skill  on  the  piano.  "  Pooh,  pooh,"  replied 
Mozart,  "  you  must  wait."  "  But  you  began 
when  you  were  younger  than  I  am,"  said  the 
boy.  "Yes,  so  I  did,"  said  the  great  com- 
poser, "  but  I  never  asked  anything  about  it. 
When  one  has  the  spirit  of  a  composer,  he 
writes  because  he  can't  help  it." 

Gladstone  said  that  what  is  really  desired  is 
to  light  up  the  spirit  that  is  within  a  boy.  In 
some  sense  and  in  some  degree,  in  some  ef- 
fectual degree,  there  is  in  every  boy  the  ma- 
terial of  good  work  in  the  world;  in  every 
boy,  not  only  in  those  who  are  brilliant,  not 
only  in  those  who  are  quick,  but  in  those  who 
are  stolid,  and  even  in  those  who  are  dull,  or 
who  seem  to  be  dull.  If  they  have  only  the 
good  will,  the  dulness  will  day  by  day  clear 
away  and  vanish  completely  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  good  will. 

Gerster,  an  unknown  Hungarian,  made 
fame  and  fortune  sure  the  first  night  she  ap- 
peared in  opera.  Her  enthusiasm  almost  hyp- 
notized her  auditors.  In  less  than  a  week 


192     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

she  had  become  popular  and  independent.  Her 
soul  was  smitten  with  a  passion  for  growth, 
and  all  the  powers  of  heart  and  mind  she 
possessed  were  enthusiastically  devoted  to 
self-improvement. 

All  great  works  of  art  have  been  produced 
when  the  artist  was  intoxicated  with  the  pas- 
sion for  beauty  and  form  which  would  not  let 
him  rest  until  his  thought  was  expressed  in 
marble  or  on  canvas. 

"Well,  I've  worked  hard  enough  for  it," 
said  Malibran  when  a  critic  expressed  his  ad- 
miration of  her  D  in  alt,  reached  by  running 
up  three  octaves  from  low  D ;  "  I've  been 
chasing  it  for  a  month.  I  pursued  it  every- 
where,— when  I  was  dressing,  when  I  was 
doing  my  hair;  and  at  last  I  found  it  on  the 
toe  of  a  shoe  that  I  was  putting  on." 

"  Every  great  and  commanding  moment 
in  the  annals  of  the  world,"  says  Emerson, 
"  is  the  triumph  of  some  enthusiasm.  The 
victories  of  the  Arabs  after  Mahomet,  who, 
in  a  few  years,  from  a  small  and  mean  begin- 
ning, established  a  larger  empire  than  that  of 
Rome,  is  an  example.  They  did  they  knew 
not  what.  The  naked  Derar,  horsed  on  an 
idea,  was  found  an  overmatch  for  a  troop  of 
cavalry.  The  women  fought  like  men  and 


TRIUMPHS    OF    ENTHUSIASM     191 

conquered  the  Roman  men.  They  were  mis- 
erably equipped,  miserably  fed,  but  they  were 
temperance  troops.  There  was  neither  brandy 
nor  flesh  needed  to  feed  them.  They  con- 
quered Asia  and  Africa  and  Spain  on  barley. 
The  Caliph  Omar's  walking-stick  struck  more 
terror  into  those  who  saw  it  than  another 
man's  sword." 

It  was  enthusiasm  that  enabled  Napoleon 
to  make  a  campaign  in  two  weeks  that  would 
have  taken  another  a  year  to  accomplish. 
"  These  Frenchmen  are  not  men,  they  fly," 
said  the  Austrians  in  consternation.  In  fifteen 
days  Napoleon,  in  his  first  Italian  campaign, 
had  gained  six  victories,  taken  twenty-one 
standards,  fifty-five  pieces  of  cannon,  had  cap- 
tured fifteen  thousand  prisoners,  and  had  con- 
quered Piedmont. 

After  this  astonishing  avalanche  a  dis- 
comfited Austrian  general  said :  "  This  young 
commander  knows  nothing  whatever  about 
the  art  of  war.  He  is  a  perfect  ignoramus. 
There  is  no  doing  anything  with  him."  But 
his  soldiers  followed  their  "  Little  Corporal " 
with  an  enthusiasm  which  knew  no  defeat  or 
disaster. 

"  There  are  important  cases,"  says  A.  H.  K. 
Boyd,  "  in  which  the  difference  between  half 


194     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

a  heart  and  a  whole  heart  makes  just  the  dif- 
ference between  signal  defeat  and  a  splendid 
victory." 

"  Should  I  die  this  minute,"  said  Nelson  at 
an  important  crisis,  "  want  of  frigates  would 
be  found  written  on  my  heart." 

The  simple,  innocent  Maid  of  Orleans  with 
her  sacred  sword,  her  consecrated  banner, 
and  her  belief  in  her  great  mission,  sent  a 
thrill  of  enthusiasm  through  the  whole  French 
army  such  as  neither  king  nor  statesmen 
could  produce.  Her  zeal  carried  everything 
before  it.  Oh!  what  a  great  work  each  one 
could  perform  in  this  world  if  he  only  knew 
his  power !  But,  like  a  bitted  horse,  man  does 
not  realize  his  strength  until  he  has  once  run 
away  with  himself. 

"  Underneath  is  laid  the  builder  of  this 
church  and  city,  Christopher  Wren,  who  lived 
more  than  ninety  years,  not  for  himself,  but 
for  the  public  good.  Reader,  if  you  seek  his 
monument,  look  around !  "  Turn  where  you 
will  in  London,  you  find  noble  monuments  of 
the  genius  of  a  man  who  never  received  in- 
struction from  an  architect.  He  built  fifty- 
five  churches  in  the  city  and  thirty-six  halls. 
"  I  would  give  my  skin  for  the  architect's  de- 
sign of  the  Louvre,"  said  he,  when  in  Paris 


TRIUMPHS    OF   ENTHUSIASM     195 

to  get  ideas  for  the  restoration  of  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral  in  London.  His  rare  skill  is  shown 
in  the  palaces  of  Hampton  Court  and  Ken- 
sington, in  Temple  Bar,  Drury  Lane  Theater, 
the  Royal  Exchange,  and  the  great  Monument. 
He  changed  Greenwich  palace  into  a  sailor's 
retreat,  and  built  churches  and  colleges  at 
Oxford.  He  also  planned  for  the  rebuild- 
ing of  London  after  the  great  fire,  but  those 
in  authority  would  not  adopt  his  splendid  idea. 
He  worked  thirty-five  years  upon  his  master- 
piece, St.  Paul's  Cathedral.  Although  he 
lived  so  long,  and  was  exceedingly  healthy  in 
later  life,  he  was  so  delicate  as  a  child  that 
he  was  a  constant  source  of  anxiety  to  his 
parents.  His  great  enthusiasm  alone  seemed 
to  give  strength  to  his  body. 

Indifference  never  leads  armies  that  con- 
quer, never  models  statues  that  live,  nor 
breathes  sublime  music,  nor  harnesses  the 
forces  of  nature,  nor  rears  impressive  archi- 
tecture, nor  moves  the  soul  with  poetry,  nor 
the  world  with  heroic  philanthropies.  Enthu- 
siasm, as  Charles  Bell  says  of  the  hand, 
wrought  the  statue  of  Memnon  and  hung  the 
brazen  gates  of  Thebes.  It  fixed  the  mariner's 
trembling  needle  upon  its  axis,  and  first 
heaved  the  tremendous  bar  of  the  printing- 


196    PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

press.  It  opened  the  tubes  for  Galileo,  until 
world  after  world  swept  before  his  vision, 
and  it  reefed  the  high  topsail  that  rustled  over 
Columbus  in  the  morning  breezes  of  the  Ba- 
hamas. It  has  held  the  sword  with  which 
freedom  has  fought  her  battles,  and  poised 
the  axe  of  the  dauntless  woodman  as  he 
opened  the  paths  of  civilization,  and  turned 
the  mystic  leaves  upon  which  Milton  and 
Shakespeare  inscribed  their  burning  thoughts. 

Horace  Greeley  said  that  the  best  product 
of  labor  is  the  high-minded  workman  with  an 
enthusiasm  for  his  work. 

"The  best  method  is  obtained  by  earnest- 
ness," said  Salvini.  "  If  you  can  impress  peo- 
ple with  the  conviction  that  you  feel  what  you 
say,  they  will  pardon  many  shortcomings.  And 
above  all,  study,  study,  study !  All  the  genius 
in  the  world  will  not  help  you  along  with  any 
art,  unless  you  become  a  hard  student.  It  has 
taken  me  years  to  master  a  single  part." 

There  is  a  "go,"  a  zeal,  a  furore,  almost  a 
fanaticism  for  one's  ideals  or  calling,  that  is 
peculiar  to  our  American  temperament  and 
life.  You  do  not  find  this  in  tropical  coun- 
tries. It  did  not  exist  fifty  years  ago.  It 
could  not  be  found  then  even  on  the  London 
Exchange.  But  the  influence  of  the  United 


TRIUMPHS    OF   ENTHUSIASM    197 

States  and  of  Australia,  where,  if  a  person  is 
to  succeed,  he  must  be  on  the  jump  with  all 
the  ardor  of  his  being,  has  finally  extended 
until  what  used  to  be  the  peculiar  strength  of 
a  few  great  minds  has  now  become  character- 
istic of  the  leading  nations.  Enthusiasm  is 
the  being  awake;  it  is  the  tingling  of  every 
fiber  of  one's  being  to  do  the  work  that  one's 
heart  desires.  Enthusiasm  made  Victor  Hugo 
lock  up  his  clothes  while  writing  "  Notre 
Dame,"  that  he  might  not  leave  the  work  un- 
til it  was  finished.  The  great  actor  Garrick 
well  illustrated  it  when  asked  by  an  unsuc- 
cessful preacher  the  secret  of  his  power  over 
audiences :  "  You  speak  of  eternal  verities 
and  what  you  know  to  be  true  as  if  you 
hardly  believed  what  you  were  saying  your- 
self, whereas  I  utter  what  I  know  to  be  un- 
real and  untrue  as  if  I  did  believe  it  in  my 
very  soul." 

"  When  he  comes  into  a  room,  every  man 
feels  as  if  he  had  taken  a  tonic  and  had  a  new 
lease  of  life,"  said  a  man  when  asked  the 
reason  for  his  selection,  after  he,  with  two 
companions,  had  written  upon  a  slip  of  paper 
the  name  of  the  most  agreeable  companion  he 
had  ever  met.  "  He  is  an  eager,  vivid  fel- 
low, full  of  joy,  bubbling  over  with  spirits. 


198     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

His    sympathies    are    quick    as    an    electric 
flash." 

"  He  throws  himself  into  the  occasion, 
whatever  it  may  be,  with  his  whole  heart," 
said  the  second,  in  praise  of  the  man  of  his 
choice. 

"  He  makes  the  best  of  everything,"  said 
the  third,  speaking  of  his  own  most  cherished 
acquaintance. 

The  three  were  traveling  correspondents  of 
great  English  journals,  who  had  visited  every 
quarter  of  the  world  and  talked  with  all  kinds 
of  men.  The  papers  were  examined  and  all* 
were  found  to  contain  the  name  of  a  promi- 
nent lawyer  in  Melbourne,  Australia. 

"  If  it  were  not  for  respect  for  human  opin- 
ions," said  Madame  de  Stael  to  M.  Mole,  "  I 
would  not  open  my  window  to  see  the  Bay  of 
Naples  for  the  first  time,  while  I  would  go 
five  hundred  leagues  to  talk  with  a  man  of 
genius  whom  I  had  not  seen." 

Enthusiasm  is  that  secret  and  harmonious 
spirit  which  hovers  over  the  production  of 
genius,  throwing  the  reader  of  a  book,  or  the 
spectator  of  a  statue,  into  the  very  ideal  pres- 
ence whence  these  works  have  originated. 

"  One  moonlight  evening  in  winter,"  writes 
the  biographer  of  Beethoven,  "  we  were  walk- 


TRIUMPHS    OF    ENTHUSIASM    199 

ing  through  a  narrow  street  of  Bonn. 
'  Hush ! '  exclaimed  the  great  composer,  sud- 
denly pausing  before  a  little,  mean  dwelling, 
*  what  sound  is  that  ?  It  is  from  my  Sonata 
in  F.  Hark !  how  well  it  is  played ! ' 

"  In  the  midst  of  the  finale  there  was  a 
break,  and  a  sobbing  voice  cried :  '  I  cannot 
play  any  more.  It  is  so  beautiful ;  it  is  utterly 
beyond  my  power  to  do  it  justice.  Oh,  what 
would  I  not  give  to  go  to  the  concert  at  Co- 
logne ! '  '  Ah !  my  sister/  said  a  second  voice ; 
'  why  create  regrets  when  there  is  no  remedy  ? 
We  can  scarcely  pay  our  rent/  '  You  are 
right/  said  the  first  speaker,  'and  yet  I  wish 
for  once  in  my  life  to  hear  some  really  good 
music.  But  it  is  of  no  use/ 

"  '  Let  us  go  in/  said  Beethoven.  '  Go  in ! ' 
I  remonstrated ;  '  what  should  we  go  in  for  ? ' 
'  I  will  play  to  her/  replied  my  companion  in 
an  excited  tone ;  '  here  is  feeling, — genius, — • 
understanding!  I  will  play  to  her,  and  she 
will  understand  it.  Pardon  me/  he  continued, 
as  he  opened  the  door  and  saw  a  young  man 
sitting  by  a  table,  mending  shoes,  and  a  young 
girl  leaning  sorrowfully  upon  an  old-fash- 
ioned piano ;  '  I  heard  music  and  was  tempted 
to  enter.  I  am  a  musician.  I — I  also  over- 
heard something  of  what  you  said.  You  wish 


200     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

to  hear — that  is,  you  would  like — that  is — • 
shall  I  play  for  you  ? ' 

"'  Thank  you/  said  the  shoemaker,  'but 
our  piano  is  so  wretched,  and  we  have  no 
music/ 

"  '  No  music ! '  exclaimed  the  composer ; 
'  how,  then,  does  the  young  lady — I — I  en- 
treat your  pardon/  he  added,  stammering  as 
he  saw  that  the  girl  was  blind ;  '  I  had  not 
perceived  before.  Then  you  play  by  ear? 
But  where  do  you  hear  the  music,  since  you 
frequent  no  concerts  ? ' 

" '  We  lived  at  Bruhl  for  two  years ;  and, 
while  there,  I  used  to  hear  a  lady  practising 
near  us.  During  the  summer  evenings  her 
windows  were  generally  open,  and  I  walked 
to  and  fro  outside  to  listen  to  her/ 

"  Beethoven  seated  himself  at  the  piano. 
Never,  during  all  the  years  I  knew  him,  did 
I  hear  him  play  better  than  to  that  blind  girl 
and  her  brother.  Even  the  old  instrument 
seemed  inspired.  The  young  man  and  woman 
sat  as  if  entranced  by  the  magical,  sweet 
sounds  that  flowed  out  upon  the  air  in  rhyth- 
mical swell  and  cadence,  until,  suddenly,  the 
flame  of  the  single  candle  wavered,  sank, 
flickered,  and  went  out.  The  shutters  were 
thrown  open,  admitting  a  flood  of  brilliant 


TRIUMPHS    OF   ENTHUSIASM    201 

moonlight,  but  the  player  paused,  as  if  lost  in 
thought. 

"  *  Wonderful  man  1 '  said  the  shoemaker  in 
a  low  tone;  'who  and  what  are  you?' 

1 '  Listen ! '  replied  the  master,  and  he 
played  the  opening  bars  of  the  Sonata  in  F. 
'  Then  you  are  Beethoven ! '  burst  from  the 
young  people  in  delighted  recognition.  '  Oh, 
play  to  us  once  more,'  they  added,  as  he  rose 
to  go, — *  only  once  more  ! ' 

; '  I  will  improvise  a  sonata  to  the  moon- 
light,' said  he,  gazing  thoughtfully  upon  thf 
liquid  stars  shining  so  softly  out  of  the  depth? 
of  a  cloudless  winter  sky.  Then  he  played  a 
sad  and  infinitely  lovely  movement,  which 
crept  gently  over  the  instrument,  like  the  calm 
flow  of  moonlight  over  the  earth.  This  was 
followed  by  a  wild,  elfin  passage  in  triple 
time — a  sort  of  grotesque  interlude,  like  the 
dance  of  fairies  upon  the  lawn.  Then  came 
a  swift  agitated  ending — a  breathless,  hurry- 
ing, trembling  movement,  descriptive  of  flight, 
and  uncertainty,  and  vague  impulsive  terror, 
which  carried  us  away  on  its  rustling  wings, 
and  left  us  all  in  emotion  and  wonder.  '  Fare- 
well to  you,'  he  said,  as  he  rose  and  turned 
toward  the  door.  *  You  will  come  again  ? ' 
asked  the  host  and  hostess  in  a  breath.  '  Yes, 


202    PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

yes,'  said  Beethoven  hurriedly,  '  I  will  come 
again,  and  give  the  young  lady  some  lessons. 
Farewell ! '  Then  to  me  he  added :  '  Let  us 
make  haste  back,  that  I  may  write  out  that 
sonata  while  I  can  yet  remember  it/  We  did 
return  in  haste,  and  not  until  long  past  the 
dawn  of  day  did  he  rise  from  his  table  with 
the  full  score  of  the  Moonlight  Sonata  in  his 
hand." 

Michael  Angelo  studied  anatomy  twelve 
years,  nearly  ruining  his  health,  but  this  course 
determined  his  style,  his  practise,  and  his 
glory.  He  drew  his  figures  in  skeleton, 
added  muscles,  fat,  and  skin  successively,  and 
then  draped  them.  He  made  every  tool  he 
used  in  sculpture,  such  as  files,  chisels,  and 
pincers.  In  painting  he  prepared  all  his  own 
colors,  and  would  not  let  servants  or  students 
even  mix  them. 

Raphael's  enthusiasm  inspired  every  artist 
in  Italy,  and  his  modest,  charming  manners 
disarmed  envy  and  jealousy.  He  has  been 
called  the  only  distinguished  man  who  lived 
and  died  without  an  enemy  or  detractor. 

Again  and  again  poor  Bunyan  might  have 
had  his  liberty;  but  not  the  separation  from 
his  poor  blind  daughter  Mary,  which  he  said 
was  like  pulling  the  flesh  from  his  bones;  not 


TRIUMPHS    OF    ENTHUSIASM    203 

the  need  of  a  poor  family  dependent  upon 
him;  not  the  love  of  liberty  nor  the  spur  of 
ambition  could  induce  him  to  forego  his  plain 
preaching  in  public  places.  He  had  so  for- 
gotten his  early  education  that  his  wife  had 
to  teach  him  again  to  read  and  write.  It  was 
the  enthusiasm  of  conviction  which  enabled 
this  poor,  ignorant,  despised  Bedford  tinker 
to  write  his  immortal  allegory  with  such  fas- 
cination that  a  whole  world  has  read  it. 

Only  thoughts  that  breathe  in  words  that 
burn  can  kindle  the  spark  slumbering  in  the 
heart  of  another. 

Rare  consecration  to  a  great  enterprise  is 
found  in  the  work  of  the  late  Francis  Park- 
man.  While  a  student  at  Harvard  he  de- 
termined to  write  the  history  of  the  French 
and  English  in  North  America.  With  a  stead- 
iness and  devotion  seldom  equaled  he  gave 
his  life,  his  fortune,  his  all  to  this  one  great 
object.  Although  he  had,  while  among  the 
Dakota  Indians,  collecting  material  for  his 
history,  ruined  his  health  and  could  not  use 
his  eyes  more  than  five  minutes  at  a  time  for 
fifty  years,  he  did  not  swerve  a  hair's  breadth 
from  the  high  purpose  formed  in  his  youth, 
until  he  gave  to  the  world  the  best  history 
upon  this  subject  ever  written. 


204     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

After  Lincoln  had  walked  six  miles  to  bor- 
row a  grammar,  he  returned  home  and  burned 
one  shaving  after  another  while  he  studied 
the  precious  prize. 

Gilbert  Becket,  an  English  Crusader,  was 
taken  prisoner  and  became  a  slave  in  the 
palace  of  a  Saracen  prince,  where  he  not  only 
gained  the  confidence  of  his  master,  but  also 
the  love  of  his  master's  fair  daughter.  By 
and  by  he  escaped  and  returned  to  England, 
but  the  devoted  girl  determined  to  follow  him. 
She  knew  but  two  words  of  the  English  lan- 
guage— London  and  Gilbert;  but  by  repeat- 
ing the  first  she  obtained  passage  in  a  vessel 
to  the  great  metropolis,  and  then  she  went 
from  street  to  street  pronouncing  the  other — 
"  Gilbert."  At  last  she  came  to  the  street  on 
which  Gilbert  lived  in  prosperity.  The  un- 
usual crowd  drew  the  family  to  the  window, 
when  Gilbert  himself  saw  and  recognized 
her,  and  took  to  his  arms  and  home  his  far- 
come  princess  with  her  solitary  fond  word. 

The  most  irresistible  charm  of  youth  is  its 
bubbling  enthusiasm.  Youth  sees  no  darkness 
ahead, — no  defile  that  has  no  outlet, — it  for- 
gets that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  failure  in 
the  world,  and  believes  that  mankind  has  been 
waiting  all  these  centuries  for  him  to  come 


TRIUMPHS   OF    ENTHUSIASM       205 

and  be  the  liberator  of  truth  and  energy  and 
beauty. 

Of  what  use  was  it  to  forbid  the  boy 
Handel  to  touch  a  musical  instrument,  or  to 
forbid  him  going  to  school,  lest  he  learn  the 
gamut?  He  stole  midnight  interviews  with 
a  dumb  spinet  in  a  secret  attic.  The  boy  Bach 
copied  whole  books  of  studies  by  moonlight, 
for  want  of  a  candle  churlishly  denied.  Nor 
was  he  disheartened  when  these  copies  were 
taken  from  him.  The  painter  West  began  in 
a  garret,  and  plundered  the  family  cat  for 
bristles  to  make  his  brushes. 

It  is  the  enthusiasm  of  youth  which  cuts 
the  Gordian  knot  age  cannot  untie.  "  Peo- 
ple smile  at  the  enthusiasm  of  youth,"  says 
Charles  Kingsley ;  "  that  enthusiasm  which 
they  themselves  secretly  look  back  to  with  a 
sigh,  perhaps  unconscious  that  it  is  partly 
their  own  fault  that  they  ever  lost  it." 

How  much  the  world  owes  to  the  enthusi- 
asm of  Dante! 

Tennyson  wrote  his  first  volume  at  eight- 
een, and  at  nineteen  gained  a  medal  at  Cam- 
bridge. 

"  The  most  beautiful  works  of  all  art  were 
done  in  youth,"  says  Ruskin.  "  Almost  every- 
thing that  is  great  has  been  done  by  youth," 


206    PUSHING   TO   THE  FRONT 

wrote  Disraeli.  "  The  world's  interests  are, 
under  God,  in  the  hands  of  the  young,"  says 
Dr.  Trumbull. 

It  was  the  youth  Hercules  that  performed 
the  Twelve  Labors.  Enthusiastic  youth  faces 
the  sun,  it  shadows  all  behind  it.  The  heart 
rules  youth;  the  head,  manhood.  Alexander 
was  a  mere  youth  when  he  rolled  back  the 
Asiatic  hordes  that  threatened  to  overwhelm 
European  civilization  almost  at  its  birth. 
Napoleon  had  conquered  Italy  at  twenty-five. 
Byron  and  Raphael  died  at  thirty-seven,  an 
age  which  has  been  fatal  to  many  a  genius, 
and  Poe  lived  but  a  few  months  longer. 
Romulus  founded  Rome  at  twenty.  Pitt  and 
Bolingbroke  were  ministers  almost  before 
they  were  men.  Gladstone  was  in  Parliament 
in  early  manhood.  Newton  made  some  of  his 
greatest  discoveries  before  he  was  twenty-five. 
Keats  died  at  twenty-five,  Shelley  at  twenty- 
nine.  Luther  was  a  triumphant  reformer  at 
twenty-five.  It  is  said  that  no  English  poet 
ever  equaled  Chatterton  at  twenty-one.  White- 
field  and  Wesley  began  their  great  revival  as 
students  at  Oxford,  and  the  former  had  made 
his  influence  felt  throughout  England  before 
he  was  twenty-four.  Victor  Hugo  wrote  a 
tragedy  at  fifteen,  and  had  taken  three  prizes 


TRIUMPHS  OF   ENTHUSIASM      207 

at  the  Academy  and  gained  the  title  of  Mas- 
ter before  he  was  twenty. 

Many  of  the  world's  greatest  geniuses  never 
saw  forty  years.  Never  before  has  the  young 
man,  who  is  driven  by  his  enthusiasm,  had 
such  an  opportunity  as  he  has  to-day.  It  is 
the  age  of  young  men  and  young  women, 
Their  ardor  is  their  crown,  before  which  the 
languid  and  the  passive  bow. 

But  if  enthusiasm  is  irresistible  in  youth, 
how  much  more  so  is  it  when  carried  into  old 
age!  Gladstone  at  eighty  had  ten  times  the 
weight  and  power  that  any  man  of  twenty- 
five  would  have  with  the  same  ideals.  The 
glory  of  age  is  only  the  glory  of  its  enthusi- 
asm, and  the  respect  paid  to  white  hairs  is 
reverence  to  a  heart  fervent,  in  spite  of  the 
torpid  influence  of  an  enfeebled  body.  The 
"  Odyssey "  was  the  creation  of  a  blind  old 
man,  but  that  old  man  was  Homer. 

The  contagious  zeal  of  an  old  man,  Peter 
the  Hermit,  rolled  the  chivalry  of  Europe 
upon  the  ranks  of  Islam. 

Dandolo,  the  Doge  of  Venice,  won  battles 
at  ninety-four,  and  refused  a  crown  at  ninety- 
six.  Wellington  planned  and  superintended 
fortifications  at  eighty.  Bacon  and  Hum- 
boldt  were  enthusiastic  students  to  the  last 


208    PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

gasp.  Wise  old  Montaigne  was  shrewd  in  his 
gray-beard  wisdom  and  loving  life,  even  in 
the  midst  of  his  fits  of  gout  and  colic. 

Dr.  Johnson's  best  work,  "  The  Lives  of  the 
Poets,"  was  written  when  he  was  seventy- 
eight.  Defoe  was  fifty-eight  when  he  pub- 
lished "  Robinson  Crusoe."  Newton  wrote 
new  briefs  to  his  "  Principia  "  at  eighty-three. 
Plato  died  writing,  at  eighty-one.  Tom  Scott 
began  the  study  of  Hebrew  at  eighty-six. 
Galileo  was  nearly  seventy  when  he  wrote  on 
the  laws  of  motion.  James  Watt  learned  Ger- 
man at  eighty-five.  Mrs.  Somerville  finished 
her  "  Molecular  and  Microscopic  Science  "  at 
eighty-nine.  Humboldt  completed  his  "  Cos- 
mos "  at  ninety,  a  month  before  his  death. 
Burke  was  thirty-five  before  he  obtained  a 
seat  in  Parliament,  yet  he  made  the  world  feel 
his  character.  Unknown  at  forty,  Grant  was 
one  of  the  most  famous  generals  in  history  at 
forty-two.  Eli  Whitney  was  twenty-three 
when  he  decided  to  prepare  for  college,  and 
thirty  when  he  graduated  from  Yale;  yet  his 
cotton-gin  opened  a  great  industrial  future 
for  the  Southern  States.  What  a  power  was 
Bismarck  at  eighty!  Lord  Palmerston  was 
an  "  Old  Boy"  to  the  last.  He  became  Prime 
Minister  of  England  the  second  time  at  sev- 


TRIUMPHS   OF    ENTHUSIASM       209 

enty-five,  and  died  Prime  Minister  at  eighty- 
one.  Galileo  at  seventy-seven,  blind  and  fee- 
ble, was  working  every  day,  adapting  the 
principle  of  the  pendulum  to  clocks.  George 
Stephenson  did  not  learn  to  read  and  write 
until  he  had  reached  manhood.  Some  of 
Longfellow's,  Whittier's,  and  Tennyson's  best 
work  was  done  after  they  were  seventy. 

At  sixty-three  Dryden  began  the  translation 
of  the  "^Eneid."  Robert  Hall  learned  Italian 
when  past  sixty,  that  he  might  read  Dante  in 
the  original.  Noah  Webster  studied  seven- 
teen languages  after  he  was  fifty.  Cicero 
said  well  that  men  are  like  wine :  age  sours  the 
bad,  and  improves  the  good. 

With  enthusiasm  we  may  retain  the  youth 
of  the  spirit  until  the  hair  is  silvered,  even  as 
the  Gulf  Stream  softens  the  rigors  of  north- 
ern Europe. 

"  How  ages  thine  heart, — towards  youth  ? 
If  not,  doubt  thy  fitness  for  thy  work." 


X   TACT  OR  COMMON   SENSE 

"Who  is  stronger  than  thou?"  asked  Brahma; 
and  Force  replied  "  Address."— VICTOR  HUGO. 

Address  makes  opportunities ;  the  want  of  it  gives 
them.— BOVEE. 

He'll  suit  his  bearing  to  the  hour, 
Laugh,  listen,  learn,  or  teach. 

ELIZA  COOK. 

A  man  who  knows  the  world  will  not  only  make 
the  most  of  everything  he  does  know,  but  of  many 
things  he  does  not  know ;  and  will  gain  more  credit 
by  his  adroit  mode  of  hiding  his  ignorance,  than  the 
pedant  by  his  awkward  attempt  to  exhibit  his  erudi- 
tion.— COLTON. 

The  art  of  using  moderate  abilities  to  advantage 
wins  praise,  and  often  acquires  more  reputation  than 
actual  brilliancy. — ROCHEFOUCAULD. 

"Tact  clinches  the  bargain, 

Sails  out  of  the  bay, 
Gets  the  vote  in  the  Senate, 
Spite  of  Webster  or  Clay." 

NEVER  will  surrender  to 
a  nigger,"  said  a  Confed- 
erate officer,  when  a  col- 
ored soldier  chased  and 
caught  him.  "  Berry  sorry, 
massa,"  said  the  negro,  lev- 
eling his  rifle;  "must  kill  you  den;  hain't 
time  to  go  back  and  git  a  white  man."  The 
officer  surrendered. 

210 


TACT  OR  COMMON  SENSE     211 

"When  God  endowed  human  beings  with 
brains,"  says  Montesquieu,  "he  did  not  in- 
tend to  guarantee  them." 

When  Abraham  Lincoln  was  running  for 
the  legislature  the  first  time,  on  the  platform 
of  the  improvement  of  the  Sangamon  River, 
he  went  to  secure  the  votes  of  thirty  men 
who  were  cradling  a  wheat-field.  They  asked 
no  questions  about  internal  improvements,  but 
only  seemed  curious  to  know  whether  he  had 
muscle  enough  to  represent  them  in  the  legis- 
lature. Lincoln  took  up  a  cradle  and  led  the 
gang  around  the  field.  The  whole  thirty  voted 
for  him. 

"  I  do  not  know  how  it  is,"  said  Napoleon 
in  surprise  to  his  cook,  "  but  at  whatever  hour 
I  call  for  my  breakfast  my  chicken  is  always 
ready  and  always  in  good  condition."  This 
seemed  to  him  the  more  strange  because  some- 
times he  would  breakfast  at  eight  and  at  other 
times  as  late  as  eleven.  "  Sire,"  said  the  cook, 
"  the  reason  is,  that  every  quarter  of  an  hour 
I  put  a  fresh  chicken  down  to  roast,  so  that 
your  Majesty  is  sure  always  to  have  it  at  per- 
fection." 

Talent  in  this  age  is  no  match  for  tact.  We 
see  its  failure  everywhere.  Tact  will  manip- 
ulate one  talent  so  as  to  get  more  out  of  it  in 


212     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

a  lifetime  than  ten  talents  will  accomplish 
without  it.  "  Talent  lies  abed  till  noon ;  tact 
is  up  at  six."  Talent  is  power,  tact  is  skill. 
Talent  knows  what  to  do,  tact  knows  how  to 
do  it. 

"Talent  is  something,  but  tact  is  every- 
thing. It  is  not  a  sixth  sense,  but  it  is  like 
the  life  of  all  the  five.  It  is  the  open  eye,  the 
quick  ear,  the  judging  taste,  the  keen  smell, 
and  lively  touch;  it  is  the  interpreter  of  all 
riddles,  the  surmounter  of  all  difficulties,  the 
remover  of  all  obstacles." 

The  world  is  full  of  theoretical,  one-sided, 
impractical  men,  who  have  turned  all  the  en- 
ergies of  their  lives  into  one  faculty  until  they 
have  developed,  not  a  full-orbed,  symmetri- 
cal man,  but  a  monstrosity,  while  all  their 
other  faculties  have  atrophied  and  died.  We 
often  call  these  one-sided  men  geniuses,  and 
the  world  excuses  their  impractical  and  al- 
most idiotic  conduct  in  most  matters,  because 
they  can  perform  one  kind  of  work  that  no 
one  else  can  do  as  well.  A  merchant  is  ex- 
cused if  he  is  a  giant  in  merchandise,  though 
he  may  be  an  imbecile  in  the  drawing-room. 
Adam  Smith  could  teach  the  world  economy 
in  his  "  Wealth  of  Nations,"  but  he  could  not 
manage  the  finances  of  his  own  household. 


TACT  OR  COMMON   SENSE     213 

Many  great  men  are  very  impractical  even 
in  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life.  Isaac  Newton 
could  read  the  secret  of  creation;  but,  tired 
of  rising  from  his  chair  to  open  the  door  for 
a  cat  and  her  kitten,  he  had  two  holes  cut 
through  the  panels  for  them  to  pass  at  will,  a 
large  hole  for  the  cat,  and  a  small  one  for  the 
kitten.  Beethoven  was  a  great  musician,  but 
he  sent  three  hundred  florins  to  pay  for  six 
shirts  and  half  a  dozen  handkerchiefs.  He 
paid  his  tailor  as  large  a  sum  in  advance,  and 
yet  he  was  so  poor  at  times  that  he  had  only  a 
biscuit  and  a  glass  of  water  for  dinner.  He 
did  not  know  enough  of  business  to  cut  the 
coupon  from  a  bond  when  he  wanted  money, 
but  sold  the  whole  instrument.  Dean  Swift 
nearly  starved  in  a  country  parish  where  his 
more  practical  classmate  Stafford  became 
rich.  One  of  Napoleon's  marshals  understood 
military  tactics  as  well  as  his  chief,  but  he  did 
not  know  men  so  well,  and  lacked  the  other's 
skill  and  tact.  Napoleon  might  fall ;  but,  like 
a  cat,  he  would  fall  upon  his  feet. 

For  his  argument  in  the  Florida  Case,  a 
fee  of  one  thousand  dollars  in  crisp  new 
bills  of  large  denomination  was  handed  to 
Daniel  Webster  as  he  sat  reading  in  his  li- 
brary. The  next  day  he  wished  to  use  some 


214    PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

of  the  money,  but  could  not  find  any  of  the 
bills.  Years  afterward,  as  he  turned  the  page 
of  a  book,  he  found  a  bank-bill  without  a 
crease  in  it.  On  turning  the  next  leaf  he 
found  another,  and  so  on  until  he  took  the 
whole  amount  lost  from  the  places  where  he 
had  deposited  them  thoughtlessly,  as  he  read. 
Learning  of  a  new  issue  of  gold  pieces  at  the 
Treasury,  he  directed  his  secretary,  Charles 
Lanman,  to  obtain  several  hundred  dollars' 
worth.  A  day  or  two  after  he  put  his  hand  in 
his  pocket  for  one,  but  they  were  all  gone. 
Webster  was  at  first  puzzled,  but  on  reflection 
remembered  that  he  had  given  them  away, 
one  by  one,  to  friends  who  seemed  to  appre- 
ciate their  beauty. 

A  professor  in  mathematics  in  a  New  Eng- 
land college,  a  "book-worm,"  was  asked  by 
his  wife  to  bring  home  some  coffee.  "  How 
much  will  you  have?"  asked  the  merchant. 
"  Well,  I  declare,  my  wife  did  not  say,  but  I 
guess  a  bushel  will  do." 

Many  a  great  man  has  been  so  absent- 
minded  at  times  as  to  seem  devoid  of  common 
sense. 

"The  professor  is  not  at  home,"  said  his 
servant  who  looked  out  of  a  window  in  the 
dark  and  failed  to  recognize  Lessing  when 


TACT  OR   COMMON   SENSE     215 

the  latter  knocked  at  his  own  door  in  a  fit  of 
absent-mindedness.  "  Oh,  very  well,"  replied 
Lessing.  "  No  matter,  I'll  call  at  another 
time." 

Louis  Philippe  said  he  was  the  only  sover- 
eign in  Europe  fit  to  govern,  for  he  could 
black  his  own  boots.  The  world  is  full  of 
men  and  women  apparently  splendidly  en- 
dowed and  highly  educated,  yet  who  can 
scarcely  get  a  living. 

Not  long  ago  three  college  graduates  were 
found  working  on  a  sheep  farm  in  Australia, 
one  from  Oxford,  one  from  Cambridge,  and 
the  other  from  a  German  University, — col- 
lege men  tending  brutes!  Trained  to  lead 
men,  they  drove  sheep.  The  owner  of  the 
farm  was  an  ignorant,  coarse  sheep-raiser.  He 
knew  nothing  of  books  or  theories,  but  he 
knew  sheep.  His  three  hired  graduates  could 
speak  foreign  languages  and  discuss  theories 
of  political  economy  and  philosophy,  but  he 
could  make  money.  He  could  talk  about  noth- 
ing but  sheep  and  farm ;  but  he  had  made  a 
fortune,  while  the  college  men  could  scarcely 
get  a  living.  Even  the  University  could 
not  supply  common  sense.  It  was  "  culture 
against  ignorance;  the  college  against  the 
ranch;  and  the  ranch  beat  every  time." 


216     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

Do  not  expect  too  much  from  books.  Bacon 
said  that  studies  "  teach  not  their  own  use. 
but  that  there  is  a  practical  wisdom  without 
them,  won  by  observation."  The  use  of  books 
must  be  found  outside  their  own  lids.  It  was 
said  of  a  great  French  scholar :  "  He  was 
drowned  in  his  talents."  Over-culture,  with- 
out practical  experience,  weakens  a  man,  and 
unfits  him  for  real  life.  Book  education  alone 
tends  to  make  a  man  too  critical,  too  self- 
conscious,  timid,  distrustful  of  his  abilities,  too 
fine  for  the  mechanical  drudgery  of  practical 
life,  too  highly  polished,  and  too  finely  cul- 
tured for  every-day  use. 

The  culture  of  books  and  colleges  refines, 
yet  it  is  often  but  an  ethical  culture,  and  is 
gained  at  the  cost  of  vigor  and  rugged 
strength.  Book  culture  alone  tends  to  par- 
alyze the  practical  faculties.  The  bookworm 
loses  his  individuality ;  his  head  is  filled  with 
theories  and  saturated  with  other  men's 
thoughts.  The  stamina  of  the  vigorous  mind 
he  brought  from  the  farm  has  evaporated  in 
college;  and  when  he  graduates,  he  is  aston- 
ished to'  find  that  he  has  lost  the  power  to 
grapple  with  men  and  things,  and  is  therefore 
outstripped  in  the  race  of  life  by  the  boy  who 
has  had  no  chance,  but  who,  in  the  fierce. 


TACT  OR  COMMON   SENSE     217 

struggle  for  existence,  has  developed  hard 
common  sense  and  practical  wisdom.  The 
college  graduate  often  mistakes  his  crutches 
for  strength.  He  inhabits  an  ideal  realm 
where  common  sense  rarely  dwells.  The 
world  cares  little  for  his  theories  or  his  ency- 
clopaedic knowledge.  The  cry  of  the  age  is 
for  practical  men. 

"  We  have  been  among  you  several  weeks," 
said  Columbus  to  the  Indian  chiefs ;  "  and,  al- 
though at  first  you  treated  us  like  friends,  you 
are  now  jealous  of  us  and  are  trying  to  drive 
us  away.  You  brought  us  food  in  plenty 
every  morning,  but  now  you  bring  very  little 
and  the  amount  is  less  with  each  succeeding 
day.  The  Great  Spirit  is  angry  with  you  for 
not  doing  as  you  agreed  in  bringing  us  pro- 
visions. To  show  his  anger  he  will  cause  the 
sun  to  be  in  darkness."  He  knew  that  there 
was  to  be  an  eclipse  of  the  sun,  and  told  the 
day  and  hour  it  would  occur,  but  the  Indians 
did  not  believe  him,  and  continued  to  reduce 
the  supply  of  food. 

On  the  appointed  day  the  sun  rose  without 
a  cloud,  and  the  Indians  shook  their  heads, 
beginning  to  show  signs  of  open  hostility  as 
the  hours  passed  without  a  shadow  on  the 
face  of  the  sun.  But  at  length  a  dark  spot 


218    PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

was  seen  on  one  margin;  and,  as  it  became 
larger,  the  natives  grew  frantic  and  fell  pros- 
trate before  Columbus  to  entreat  for  help.  He 
retired  to  his  tent,  promising  to  save  them,  if 
possible.  About  the  time  for  the  eclipse  to 
pass  away,  he  came  out  and  said  that  the 
Great  Spirit  had  pardoned  them,  and  would 
soon  drive  away  the  monster  from  the  sun  if 
they  would  never  offend  him  again.  They 
readily  promised,  and  when  the  sun  had 
passed  out  of  the  shadow  they  leaped  and 
danced  and  sang  for  joy.  Thereafter  the 
Spaniards  had  all  the  provisions  they  needed. 

"  Common  sense/'  said  Wendell  Phillips, 
"  bows  to  the  inevitable  and  makes  use  of  it." 

When  Caesar  stumbled  in  landing  on  the 
beach  of  Britain,  he  instantly  grasped  a  hand- 
ful of  sand  and  held  it  aloft  as  a  signal  of  tri- 
umph, hiding  forever  from  his  followers  the 
ill  omen  of  his  threatened  fall. 

Goethe,  speaking  of  some  comparisons  that 
had  been  instituted  between  himself  and 
Shakespeare,  said:  "Shakespeare  always  hits 
the  right  nail  on  the  head  at  once ;  but  I  have 
to  stop  and  think  which  is  the  right  nail,  be- 
fore I  hit." 

It  has  been  said  that  a  few  pebbles  from  a 
brook  in  the  sling  of  a  David  who  knows 


TACT  OR  COMMON   SENSE     219 

how  to  send  them  to  the  mark  are  more  effec- 
tive than  a  Goliath's  spear  and  a  Goliath's 
strength  with  a  Goliath's  clumsiness. 

"  Get  ready  for  the  redskins ! "  shouted  an 
excited  man  as  he  galloped  up  to  the  log- 
cabin  of  the  Moore  family  in  Ohio  many  years 
ago;  "and  give  me  a  fresh  horse  as  soon  as 
you  can.  They  killed  a  family  down  the  river 
last  night,  and  nobody  knows  where  they'll 
turn  up  next !  " 

"What  shall  we  do?"  asked  Mrs.  Moore, 
with  a  pale  face.  "  My  husband  went  away 
yesterday  to  buy  our  winter  supplies,  and  will 
not  be  back  until  morning." 

"Husband  away?  Whew!  that's  bad!  Well, 
shut  up  as  tight  as  you  can.  Cover  up  your 
fire,  and  don't  strike  a  light  to-night."  Then 
springing  upon  the  horse  the  boys  had 
brought,  he  galloped  away  to  warn  other  set- 
tlers. 

Mrs.  Moore  carried  the  younger  children 
to  the  loft  of  the  cabin,  and  left  Obed  and 
Joe  to  watch,  reluctantly  yielding  the  post  of 
danger  to  them  at  their  urgent  request. 
"  They're  coming,  Joe ! "  whispered  Obed 
early  in  the  evening,  as  he  saw  several  shad- 
ows moving  across  the  fields.  "  Stand  by  that 
window  with  the  axe,  while  I  get  the  rifle 


220    PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

pointed  at  this  one."  Opening  the  bullet- 
pouch,  he  took  out  a  ball,  but  nearly  fainted 
as  he  found  it  was  too  large  for  the  rifle.  His 
father  had  taken  the  wrong  pouch.  Obed 
felt  around  to  see  if  there  were  any  smaller 
balls  in  the  cupboard,  and  almost  stumbled 
over  a  very  large  pumpkin,  one  of  the  two 
which  he  and  Joe  had  been  using  to  make 
Jack-oManterns  when  the  messenger  alarmed 
them.  Pulling  off  his  coat,  he  flung  it  over 
the  vegetable  lantern,  made  to  imitate  a  gi- 
gantic grinning  face,  with  open  eyes,  nose, 
and  mouth,  and  with  a  live  coal  from  the 
ashes  he  lighted  the  candle  inside.  "  They'll 
sound  the  war-whoop  in  a  minute,  if  I  give 
them  time,"  he  whispered,  as  he  raised  the 
covered  lantern  to  the  window.  "  Now  for 
it !  "  he  added,  pulling  the  coat  away.  An  un- 
earthly yell  greeted  the  appearance  of  the 
grinning  monster,  and  the  Indians  fled  wildly 
to  the  woods.  "Quick,  Joe!  Light  up  the 
other  one!  Don't  you  see  that's  what  scar't 
'em  so?"  demanded  Obed;  and  at  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  second  fiery  face  the  savages 
gave  a  final  yell  and  vanished  in  the  forest. 
Mr.  Moore  and  daylight  came  together,  but 
the  Indians  did  not  return. 

Thurlow  Weed  earned  his  first  quarter  by 


TACT  OR  COMMON   SENSE     221 

carrying  a  trunk  on  his  back  from  a  sloop 
in  New  York  harbor  to  a  Broad  Street  hotel 
He  had  very  few  chances  such  as  are  now 
open  to  the  humblest  boy,  but  he  had  tact 
and  intuition.  He  could  read  men  as  an  open 
book,  and  mold  them  to  his  will.  He  was 
unselfish.  By  three  presidents  whom  his  tact 
and  shrewdness  had  helped  to  elect  he  was 
offered  the  English  mission  and  scores  of 
other  important  positions,  but  he  invariably 
declined. 

Lincoln  selected  Weed  to  attempt  the  rec- 
onciliation of  the  "  New  York  Herald,"  which 
had  a  large  circulation  in  Europe,  and  was 
creating  a  dangerous  public  sentiment  abroad 
and  at  home  by  its  articles  in  sympathy  with 
the  Confederacy.  Though  Weed  and  Bennett 
had  not  spoken  to  each  other  before  for  thirty 
years,  the  very  next  day  after  their  interview 
the  "  Herald  "  became  a  strong  Union  paper. 
Weed  was  then  sent  to  Europe  to  counteract 
the  pernicious  influence  of  secession  agents. 
The  emperor  of  France  favored  the  South. 
He  was  very  indignant  because  Charleston 
harbor  had  been  blockaded,  thus  shutting  off 
French  manufacturers  from  large  supplies  of 
cotton.  But  Weed's  rare  tact  modified  his 
views,  and  induced  him  to  change  to  friend- 


222     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

liness  the  tone  of  a  hostile  speech  prepared 
for  delivery  to  the  National  Assembly. 
England  was  working  night  and  day  pre- 
paring for  war  when  Weed  arrived  upon  the 
scene,  and  soon  changed  largely  the  current 
of  public  sentiment.  On  his  return  to  Amer- 
ica the  city  of  New  York  extended  public 
thanks  to  him  for  his  inestimable  services. 
He  was  equally  successful  in  business,  and 
acquired  a  fortune  of  a  million  dollars. 

"  Tell  me  the  breadth  of  this  stream,"  said 
Napoleon  to  his  chief  engineer,  as  they  came 
to  a  bridgeless  river  which  the  army  had  to 
cross.  "  Sire,  I  cannot.  My  scientific  instru- 
ments are  with  the  army,  and  we  are  ten  miles 
ahead  of  it/' 

"  Measure  the  width  of  this  stream  in- 
stantly."—" Sire,  be  reasonable !  "— "  Ascer- 
tain at  once  the  width  of  this  river,  or  you 
shall  be  deposed." 

The  engineer  drew  the  cap-piece  of  his  hel- 
met down  until  the  edge  seemed  just  in  line 
between  his  eye  and  the  opposite  bank;  then, 
holding  himself  carefully  erect,  he  turned  on 
his  heel  and  noticed  where  the  edge  seemed 
to  touch  the  bank  on  which  he  stood,  which 
was  on  the  same  level  as  the  other.  He  paced 
the  distance  to  the  point  last  noted,  and  said: 


TACT  OR  COMMON  SENSE    223 

"  This  is  the  approximate  width  of  the 
stream."  He  was  promoted. 

"  Mr.  Webster,"  said  the  mayor  of  a  West- 
ern city,  when  it  was  learned  that  the  great 
statesman,  although  weary  with  travel,  would 
be  delayed  for  an  hour  by  a  failure  to  make 
close  connections,  "  allow  me  to  introduce  you 
to  Mr.  James,  one  of  our  most  distinguished 
citizens."  "  How  do  you  do,  Mr.  James?" 
asked  Webster  mechanically,  as  he  glanced  at 
a  thousand  people  waiting  to  take  his  hand. 
"The  truth  is,  Mr.  Webster,"  replied  Mr. 
James  in  a  most  lugubrious  tone,  "  I  am  not 
very  well."  "  I  hope  nothing  serious  is  the 
matter,"  thundered  the  godlike  Daniel,  in  a 
tone  of  anxious  concern.  "  Well,  I  don't 
know  that,  Mr.  Webster.  I  think  it's  rheu- 

matiz,  but  my  wife "  "  Mr.  Webster,  this 

is  Mr.  Smith,"  broke  in  the  mayor,  leaving 
poor  Mr.  James  to  enjoy  his  bad  health  in  the 
pitiless  solitude  of  a  crowd.  His  total  want 
of  tact  had  made  him  ridiculous. 

"  Address  yourself  to  the  jury,  sir,"  said  a 
judge  to  a  witness  who  insisted  upon  impart- 
ing his  testimony  in  a  confidential  tone  to  the 
court  direct.  The  man  did  not  understand 
and  continued  as  before.  "  Speak  to  the  jury, 
sir,  the  men  sitting  behind  you  on  the  raised 


224     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

benches."  Turning,  the  witness  bowed  low  in 
awkward  suavity,  and  said,  "  Good-morning, 
gentlemen." 

"What  are  these?"  asked  Napoleon,  point- 
ing to  twelve  silver  statues  in  a  cathedral. 
"  The  twelve  Apostles,"  was  the  reply. 
"Take  them  down,"  said  Napoleon,  "melt 
them,  coin  them  into  money,  and  let  them  go 
about  doing  good,  as  their  Master  did." 

"  I  don't  think  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon 
show  very  great  wisdom,"  said  a  student  at 
Brown  University ;  "  I  could  make  as  good 
ones  myself."  "  Very  well,"  replied  President 
Wayland,  "  bring  in  two  to-morrow  morn- 
ing." He  did  not  bring  them. 

"Will  you  lecture  for  us  for  fame?"  was 
the  telegram  young  Henry  Ward  Beecher  re- 
ceived from  a  Young  Men's  Christian  Associ- 
ation in  the  West.  "  Yes,  F.  A.*  M.  E.  Fifty 
and  my  expenses,"  was  the  answer  the  shrewd 
young  preacher  sent  back. 

Montaigne  tells  of  a  monarch  who,  on  the 
sudden  death  of  an  only  child,  showed  his  re- 
sentment against  Providence  by  abolishing  the 
Christian  religion  throughout  his  dominions 
for  a  fortnight. 

The  triumphs  of  tact,  or  common  sense, 
over  talent  and  genius,  are  seen  everywhere. 


TACT  OR  COMMON   SENSE    225 

Walpole  was  an  ignorant  man,  and  Charle- 
magne could  hardly  write  his  name  so  that  it 
could  be  deciphered ;  but  these  giants  knew 
men  and  things,  and  possessed  that  practical 
wisdom  and  tact  which  have  ever  moved  the 
world. 

Tact,  like  Alexander,  cuts  the  knots  it  can- 
not untie,  and  leads  its  forces  to  glorious  vic- 
tory. A  practical  man  not  only  sees,  but 
seizes  the  opportunity.  There  is  a  certain 
getting-on  quality  difficult  to  describe,  but 
which  is  the  great  winner  of  the  prizes  of  life. 
Napoleon  could  do  anything  in  the  art  of  war 
with  his  own  hands,  even  to  the  making  of 
gunpowder.  Paul  was  all  things  to  all  men, 
that  he  might  save  some.  The  palm  is  among 
the  hardest  and  least  yielding  of  all  woods, 
yet  rather  than  be  deprived  of  the  rays  of  the 
life-giving  sun  in  the  dense  forests  of  South 
America,  it  is  said  to  turn  into  a  creeper,  and 
climb  the  nearest  trunk  to  the  light. 

A  farmer  who  could  not  get  a  living  sold 
one  half  of  his  farm  to  a  young  man  who 
made  enough  money  on  the  half  to  pay  for 
it  and  buy  the  rest.  "  You  have  not  tact,"  was 
his  reply,  when  the  old  man  asked  how  one 
could  succeed  so  well  where  the  other  had 
failed. 


226     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

According  to  an  old  custom  a  Cape  Cod 
minister  was  called  upon  in  April  to  make  a 
prayer  over  a  piece  of  land.  "  No,"  said  he, 
when  shown  the  land,  "  this  does  not  need  a 
prayer;  it  needs  manure." 

To  see  a  man  as  he  is  you  must  turn  him 
round  and  round  until  you  get  him  at  the 
right  angle.  Place  him  in  a  good  light,  as 
you  would  a  picture.  The  excellences  and 
defects  will  appear  if  you  get  the  right 
angle.  How  our  old  schoolmates  have 
changed  places  in  the  ranking  of  actual  life! 
The  boy  who  led  his  class  and  was  the 
envy  of  all  has  been  distanced  by  the  poor 
dunce  who  was  called  slow  and  stupid,  but 
who  had  a  sort  of  dull  energy  in  him  which 
enabled  him  to  get  on  in  the  world.  The  class 
leader  had  only  a  theoretical  knowledge,  and 
could  not  cope  with  the  stern  realities  of  the* 
age.  Even  genius,  however  rapid  its  flight, 
must  not  omit  a  single  essential  detail,  and 
must  be  willing  to  work  like  a  horse. 

Shakespeare  had  marvelous  tact ;  he  worked 
everything  into  his  plays.  He  ground  up  the 
king  and  his  vassal,  the  fool  and  the  fop,  the 
prince  and  the  peasant,  the  black  and  the 
white,  the  pure  and  the  impure,  the  simple 
and  the  profound,  passions  and  characters, 


TACT  OR  COMMON   SENSE    227 

honor  and  dishonor, — everything  within  the 
sweep  of  his  vision  he  ground  up  into  paint 
and  spread  it  upon  his  mighty  canvas. 

Some  people  show  want  of  tact  in  resenting 
every  slight  or  petty  insult,  however  unworthy 
their  notice.  Others  make  Don  Quixote's 
mistake  of  fighting  a  windmill  by  engaging  in 
controversies  with  public  speakers  and  edi- 
tors, who  are  sure  to  have  the  advantage  of 
the  final  word.  One  of  the  greatest  elements 
of  strength  in  the  character  of  Washington 
was  found  in  his  forbearance  when  unjustly 
attacked  or  ridiculed. 

Artemus  Ward  touches  this  bubble  with  a 
pretty  sharp-pointed  pen. 

"  It  was  in  a  surtin  town  in  Virginny,  the 
Muther  of  Presidents  and  things,  that  I  was 
shaimfully  aboozed  by  a  editer  in  human 
^orm.  He  set  my  Show  up  steep,  and  kalled 
me  the  urbane  and  gentlemunly  manager,  but 
when  I,  fur  the  purpuss  of  showin'  fair  play 
all  round,  went  to  anuther  offiss  to  get  my 
handbills  printed,  what  duz  this  pussillaner- 
mus  editer  do  but  change  his  toon  and  abooze 
me  like  a  injun.  He  sed  my  wax-wurks  was 
a  humbug,  and  called  me  a  horey-heded  itin- 
erent  vagabone.  I  thort  at  fust  Ide  pollish 
him  orf  ar-lar  Beneki  Boy,  but  on  reflectin' 


228     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

that  he  cood  pollish  me  much  wuss  in  his 
paper,  I  giv  it  up;  and  I  wood  here  take 
occashun  to  advise  people  when  they  run 
agin,  as  they  sumtimes  will,  these  miserble 
papers,  to  not  pay  no  attenshun  to  um.  Abuv 
all,  don't  assault  a  editer  of  this  kind.  It 
only  gives  him  a  notorosity,  which  is  jist  what 
he  wants,  and  don't  do  you  no  more  good 
than  it  would  to  jump  into  enny  other  mud- 
puddle.  Editers  are  generally  fine  men,  but 
there  must  be  black  sheep  in  every  flock." 

John  Jacob  Astor  had  practical  talent  in  a 
remarkable  degree.  During  a  storm  at  sea, 
on  his  voyage  to  America,  the  other  passen- 
gers ran  about  the  deck  in  despair,  expecting 
every  minute  to  go  down;  but  young  Astor 
went  below  and  coolly  put  on  his  best  suit  of 
clothes,  saying  that  if  the  ship  should  founder 
and  he  should  happen  to  be  rescued,  he  woul(^ 
at  least  save  his  best  suit  of  clothes. 

"Their  trading  talent  is  bringing  the  Jews 
to  the  front  in  America  as  well  as  in  Europe," 
said  a  traveler  to  one  of  that  race ;  "  and  it 
has  gained  for  them  an  ascendency,  at  least 
in  certain  branches  of  trade,  from  which 
nothing  will  ever  displace  them." 

"  Dey  are  coming  to  de  vront,  most  zair- 
tainly,"  replied  his  companion;  "but  vy  do 


TACT  OR   COMMON  SENSE       229 

you   shpeak   of   deir   drading  dalent  all   de 
time?" 

"But  don't  you  regard  it  as  a  talent?" 
"A  dalent?  No!  It  is  chenius.  I  vill  dell 
you  what  is  de  difference,  in  drade,  between 
dalent  and  chenius.  Ven  one  goes  into  a 
man's  shtore  and  manaches  to  seel  him  vat 
he  vonts,  dat  is  dalent ;  but  ven  annoder  man 
goes  into  dat  man's  shtore  and  sells  him  vot 
he  don't  vont,  dat  is  chenius;  and  dat  is  de 
chenius  vot  my  race  has  got." 


XI.    SELF-RESPECT    AND    SELF-CON- 
FIDENCE 

The  king  is  the  man  who  can. — CARLYLE. 

Be  a  friend  to  yersel,  and  ithers  will.— SCOTCH 
PROVERB. 

A  nod  from  a  lord  is  a  breakfast  for  a  fool.— 
FRANKLIN.  . 

The  reverence  of  man's  self  is,  next  to  religion, 
the  chiefest  bridle  of  all  vices. — BACON. 

Self-respect, — that  corner-stone  of  all  virtue. — 
JOHN  HERSCHEL. 

Above  all  things,  reverence  yourself. — PYTHAG- 
ORAS. 

Nothing  can  work  me  damage,  except  myself; 
the  harm  that  I  sustain  I  carry  about  with  me,  and 
never  am  a  real  sufferer  but  by  my  own  faults.— 
ST.  BERNARD. 

Self-distrust  is  the  cause  of  most  of  our  failures. 
In  the  assurance  of  strength  there  is  strength,  and 
they  are  the  weakest,  however  strong,  who  have  no 
faith  in  themselves  or  their  powers.— BOVEE. 

POOR  Scotch  weaver  used 
to  pray  daily  that  he  might 
have  a  good  opinion  of  him- 
self.   Why  not?    Can  I  ask 
another  to  think  well  of  me 
when  I  do  not  set  the  ex- 
ample?    The  Chinese  say  it  never  pays  to 
respect  a  man  who  does  not  respect  himself. 
230 


SELF-RESPECT  231 

If  the  world  sees  that  I  do  not  honor  myself, 
it  has  a  right  to  reject  me  as  an  impostor, 
because  I  claim  to  be  worthy  of  the  good 
opinion  of  others  when  I  have  not  my  own. 
Self-respect  is  based  upon  the  same  princi- 
ples as  respect  for  others. 

"  You  may  deceive  all  the  people  some  of 
the  time,"  said  Lincoln,  "  some  of  the  people 
all  the  time,  but  not  all  the  people  all  the 
time."  We  cannot  deceive  ourselves,  how- 
ever, any  of  the  time,  and  the  only  way  to 
enjoy  our  own  respect  is  to  deserve  it. 

The  world  has  a  right  to  look  to  me  for 
my  own  rating.  We  stamp  our  own  value 
upon  ourselves  and  cannot  expect  to  pass  for 
more.  When  you  are  introduced  into  society, 
people  look  into  your  face  and  eye  to  see 
what  estimate  you  place  upon  yourself.  If 
they  see  a  low  mark,  why  should  they  trouble 
themselves  to  investigate  to  see  if  you  have 
not  rated  yourself  too  low?  They  know  you 
have  lived  with  yourself  a  good  while  and 
ought  to  know  your  own  value  better  than 
they. 

"  Good  God,  that  I  should  have  intrusted 
the  fate  of  the  country  and  of  the  administra- 
tion to  such  hands ! "  exclaimed  Pitt  to  Lord 
Temple,  after  listening  in  disgust  to  the  ego- 


232     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

tistical  boasting  of  General  Wolfe,  the  day 
before  his  embarkation  for  Canada.  The 
young  soldier  had  drawn  his  sword,  rapped 
upon  the  table  with  it,  flourished  it  around 
the  room,  and  told  of  the  great  deeds  he 
would  perform. 

Little  did  the  Prime  Minister  dream  that 
this  egotistical  young  man  would  rise  from 
his  bed  when  sick  with  a  fever,  and  lead  his 
troops  to  glorious  victory  upon  the  Heights 
of  Abraham.  The  apparent  egotism  was  but 
a  prophecy  of  his  ability  to  achieve. 

"Where  is  your  fortress  now?"  asked  his 
captors  derisively  of  Stephen  of  Colonna. 
"  Here,"  was  the  bold  reply,  as  he  placed  his 
hand  upon  his  heart. 

"Well-matured  and  well-disciplined  talent 
is  always  sure  of  a  market,"  said  Washing- 
ton Irving ;  "  but  it  must  not  cower  at  home 
and  expect  to  be  sought  for.  There  is  a  good 
deal  of  cant,  too,  about  the  success  of  for- 
ward and  impudent  men,  while  men  of  retir- 
ing worth  are  passed  over  with  neglect.  But 
it  usually  happens  that  those  forward  men 
have  that  valuable  quality  of  promptness  and 
activity,  without  which  worth  is  a  mere  in- 
operative property.  A  barking  dog  is  often 
more  useful  than  a  sleeping  lion." 


SELF-RESPECT  233 

John  C.  Fremont  closed  in  almost  forgot- 
ten obscurity  his  career  as  a  man  whose  sci- 
entific attainment  gave  him  the  seat  left  va- 
cant by  the  death  of  Humboldt  in  European 
academies,  whose  wonderful  enterprise  gave 
California  to  the  Union,  and  whose  position 
was  once  among  the  foremost  in  the  political 
world.  "  He  has  been  ignored,"  said  an  op- 
ponent, "  simply  because  he  is  utterly  lacking 
in  self-assertion.  He  has  a  positive  talent  for 
effacing  himself." 

"  Why,  sir,"  said  John  C.  Calhoun  in  Yale 
College  when  a  fellow  student  ridiculed  his 
intense  application  to  study ;  "  I  am  forced  to 
make  the  most  of  my  time,  that  I  may  acquit 
myself  creditably  when  in  Congress."  A 
laugh  greeted  this  speech,  when  he  exclaimed, 
"Do  you  doubt  it?  I  assure  you  if  I  were 
not  convinced  of  my  ability  to  reach  the  na- 
tional capital  as  a  representative  within  the 
next  three  years,  I  would  leave  college  this 
very  day ! " 

"What  does  Grattan  say  of  himself?"  said 
Curran,  repeating  the  question  of  the  egotis- 
tical Lord  Erskine ;  "  nothing.  Grattan  speak 
of  himself!  Why,  sir,  Grattan  is  a  great 
man!  Torture,  sir,  could  not  wring  a  sylla- 
ble of  self-praise  from  Grattan ;  a  team  of  six 


234    PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

horses  could  not  drag  an  opinion  of  himself 
out  of  him!  Like  all  great  men,  he  knows 
the  strength  of  his  reputation,  and  will  never 
condescend  to  proclaim  its  march  like  the 
trumpeter  of  a  puppet  show.  Sir,  he  stands 
on  a  national  altar,  and  it  is  the  business  of 
us  inferior  men  to  keep  up  the  fire  and  in- 
cense. You  will  never  see  Grattan  stooping 
to  do  either  the  one  01  the  other." 

What  seems  to  us  disagreeable  egotism  in 
others  is  often  but  a  strong  expression  of 
confidence  in  their  ability  to  attain.  Great 
men  have  usually  had  great  confidence  in 
themselves.  Wordsworth  felt  sure  of  his 
place  in  history,  and  never  hesitated  to  say 
so.  Dante  predicted  his  own  fame.  "  Fear 
not/'  said  Julius  Caesar  to  his  pilot  fright- 
ened in  a  storm ;  "  thou  bearest  Caesar  and 
his  good  fortunes." 

Egotism,  so  common  in  men  of  rank,  may 
be  a  necessity.  Nature  gives  man  large  hope 
lest  he  falter  before  reaching  the  high  mark 
she  sets  for  him.  So  she  has  overloaded  his 
egotism,  often  beyond  the  pleasing  point,  to 
make  sure  that  he  will  persist  in  pushing  his 
way  upward.  Self-confidence  indicates  re- 
serve power. 

Morally   considered,  it  is  usually  safe  to 


SELF-RESPECT  235 

trust  those  who  can  trust  themselves,  but 
when  a  man  suspects  his  own  integrity,  it  is 
time  he  was  suspected  by  others.  Moral 
degradation  always  begins  at  home. 

In  these  busy  days  men  have  no  time  to 
hunt  about  in  obscure  corners  for  retiring 
merit.  They  prefer  to  take  a  man  at  his  own 
estimate  until  he  proves  himself  unworthy. 
The  world  admires  courage  and  manliness, 
and  despises  a  young  man  who  goes  about 
"with  an  air  of  perpetual  apology  for  thej 
unpardonable  sin  of  being  in  the  world." 

"If  a  man  possesses  the  consciousness  of 
what  he  is,"  said  Schelling,  "  he  will  soon 
also  learn  what  he  ought  to  be ;  let  him  have 
a  theoretical  respect  for  himself,  and  a  prac- 
tical will  soon  follow."  A  person  under  the 
firm  persuasion  that  he  can  command  re- 
sources virtually  has  them.  "  Humility  is  the 
part  of  wisdom,  and  is  most  becoming  in 
men,"  said  Kossuth ;  "  but  let  no  one  discour- 
age self-reliance;  it  is,  of  all  the  rest,  the 
greatest  quality  of  true  manliness."  Froude 
wrote:  "A  tree  must  be  rooted  in  the  soil 
before  it  can  bear  flowers  or  fruit.  A  man 
must  learn  to  stand  upright  upon  his  own 
feet,  to  respect  himself,  to  be  independent  of 
charity  or  accident.  It  is  on  this  basis  only 


236     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

that  any  superstructure  of  intellectual  culti- 
vation worth  having  can  possibly  be  built." 

A  youth  should  have  that  self-respect  which 
lifts  him  above  meanness,  and  makes  him  in- 
dependent of  slights  and  snubs. 

"  I  have  studied  all  my  law  books,"  said 
Curran,  pleading,  "and  cannot  find  a  single 
case  where  the  principle  contended  for  by  the 
opposing  counsel  is  established." 

"I  suspect,  sir,"  interrupted  Judge  Robin- 
son, who  owed  his  position  to  his  authorship 
of  several  poorly  written  but  sycophantic 
and  scurrilous  pamphlets,  "I  suspect  that 
your  law  library  is  rather  contracted." 

"  It  is  true,  my  lord,  that  I  am  poor,"  said 
the  young  lawyer  calmly,  looking  the  judge 
steadily  in  the  face;  "and  the  circumstance 
has  rather  curtailed  my  library.  My  books 
are  not  numerous,  but  they  are  select,  and,  I 
hope,  have  been  perused  with  proper  disposi- 
tions. I  have  prepared  myself  for  this  high 
profession  rather  by  the  study  of  a  few  good 
books  than  by  the  composition  of  a  great 
many  bad  ones.  I  am  not  ashamed  of  my 
poverty,  but  I  should  be  of  my  wealth,  could 
I  stoop  to  acquire  it  by  servility  and  cor- 
ruption. If  I  rise  not  to  rank,  I  shall  at 
least  be  honest.  And  should  I  ever  cease  to 


SELF-RESPECT  237 

be  so,  many  an  example  shows  me  that  an 
ill-acquired  elevation,  by  making  me  the  more 
conspicuous,  would  only  make  me  the  more 
universally  and  the  more  notoriously  con- 
temptible." Judge  Robinson  never  again 
sneered  at  the  young  barrister. 

"  Self-reliance  is  a  grand  element  of  char- 
acter," says  Michael  Reynolds.  "  It  has  won 
Olympic  crowns  and  Isthmian  laurels ;  it  con- 
fers kinship  with  men  who  have  vindicated 
their  divine  right  to  be  held  in  the  world's 
memory." 

Self-confidence  and  self-respect  give  a 
sense  of  power  which  nothing  else  can  be- 
stow. 

The  weak,  the  leaning,  the  dependent,  the 
vacillating,  the  undecided, — 

"  Know  not,  nor  ever  can,  the  generous  pride 
That  glows  in  him  who  on  himself  relies. 

His  joy  is  not  that  he  has  got  the  crown 
But  that  the  power  to  win  the  crown  is  his." 

This  above  all, — to  thine  own  self  be  true; 
And  it  must  follow,  as  the  night  the  day, 
Thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man. 

SHAKESPEARE: 


XII.   CHARACTER   IS   POWER 

Character  is  power— is  influence ;  it  makes  friends ; 
creates  funds;  draws  patronage  and  support;  and 
opens  a  sure  and  easy  way  to  wealth;  honor,  and 
happiness. — J.  HAWES. 

I'm  called  away  by  particular  business,  but  I  leave 
my  character  behind  me.— SHERIDAN. 

Character  must  stand  behind  and  back  up  every- 
thing— the  sermon,  the  poem,  the  picture,  the  play. 
None  of  them  is  worth  a  straw  without  it. — J.  G. 
HOLLAND. 

Character  is  the  diamond  that  scratches  every 
other  stone.— BARTOL. 

Be  noble !  and  the  nobleness  that  lies 
In  other  men,  sleeping,  but  never  dead, 
Will  rise  in  majesty  to  meet  thine  own. 

LOWELL. 

OU  are  a  plebeian,"  said  a 
patrician  to  Cicero.  "  I  am 
a  plebeian,"  replied  the 
great  Roman  orator ;  "  the 
nobility  of  my  family  be- 
gins with  me,  that  of  yours 
will  end  with  you." 

"  No,  say  what  you  have  to  say  in  her  pres- 
ence, too,"  said  King  Cleomenes  of  Sparta, 
when  his  visitor,  Anistagoras,  knowing  how 
much  harder  it  is  to  persuade  a  man  to  do 
wrong  when  his  child  is  at  his  side,  asked 
238 


CHARACTER   IS   POWER       239 

him  to  send  away  his  little  daughter  Gorgo, 
ten  years  old.  So  Gorgo  sat  at  her  father's 
feet,  and  listened  while  the  stranger  offered 
more  and  more  money  if  Cleomenes  would 
aid  him  to  become  king  in  a  neighboring 
country.  She  did  not  understand  the  matter, 
but  when  she  saw  her  father  look  troubled 
and  hesitate,  she  took  hold  of  his  hand  and 
said,  "  Papa,  come  away — come,  or  this 
strange  man  will  make  you  do  wrong."  The 
king  went  away  with  the  child,  and  saved 
himself  and  his  country  from  dishonor. 
Character  is  power,  even  in  a  child. 

"  Please,  sir,  buy  some  matches ! "  said  a 
little  boy,  with  a  poor  thin  blue  face,  his  feet 
bare  and  red,  and  his  clothes  only  a  bundle 
of  rags,  although  it  was  very  cold  in  Edin- 
burgh that  day.  "  No,  I  don't  want  any," 
said  the  gentleman.  "  But  they're  only  a 
penny  a  box,"  the  little  fellow  pleaded.  "  Yes, 
but  you  see  I  don't  want  a  box."  "  Then  I'll 
gie  ye  two  boxes  for  a  penny,"  the  boy  said 
at  last. 

"  And  so,  to  get  rid  of  him,"  says  the  gen- 
tleman, who  tells  the  story  in  an  English 
paper,  "  I  bought  a  box,  but  then  I  found  I 
had  no  change,  so  I  said,  *  I'll  buy  a  box  to- 


240    PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

"'Oh,  do  buy  them  to-nicht,'  the  boy 
pleaded  again ;  *  I'll  rin  and  get  ye  the 
change;  for  I'm  very  hungry/  So  I  gave 
him  the  shilling,  and  he  started  away.  I 
waited  for  the  boy,  but  no  boy  came.  Then. 
I  thought  I  had  lost  my  shilling;  but  still 
there  was  that  in  the  boy's  face  I  trusted,  and 
I  did  not  like  to  think  badly  of  him. 

"  Late  in  the  evening  a  servant  came  and 
said  a  little  boy  wanted  to  see  me.  When  the 
child  was  brought  in,  I  found  it  was  a 
smaller  brother  of  the  boy  who  got  the  shil- 
ling, but,  if  possible,  still  more  ragged  and 
thin  and  poor.  He  stood  a  moment  diving 
into  his  rags,  as  if  he  were  seeking  some- 
thing, and  then  said,  '  Are  you  the  gentleman 
that  bought  matches  frae  Sandie?'  'Yes/ 
'  Weel,  then,  here's  fourpence  oot  o'  yer  shil- 
lin'.  Sandie  canna  coom.  He's  no  weel.  A 
cart  ran  over  him  and  knocked  him  doon; 
and  he  lost  his  bonnet,  and  his  matches,  and 
your  elevenpence;  and  both  his  legs  are 
broken,  and  he's  no  weel  at  a',  and  the  doc- 
tor says  he'll  dee.  And  that's  a'  he  can  gie 
ye  the  noo/  putting  fourpence  down  on  the 
table;  and  then  the  child  broke  down  into 
great  sobs.  So  I  fed  the  little  man ;  and  then 
I  went  with  him  to  see  Sandie. 


CHARACTER  IS   POWER       241 

"I  found  that  the  two  little  things  lived 
with  a  wretched  drunken  stepmother;  their 
own  father  and  mother  were  both  dead.  I 
found  poor  Sandie  lying  on  a  bundle  of  shav- 
ings; he  knew  me  as  soon  as  I  came  in,  and 
said,  *  I  got  the  change,  sir,  and  was  coming 
back;  and  then  the  horse  knocked  me  down, 
and  both  my  legs  are  broken.  And  Reuby, 
little  Reuby!  I  am  sure  I  am  deein'!  And 
who  will  take  care  o'  ye,  Reuby,  when  I  am 
gane  ?  What  will  ye  do,  Reuby  ? ' 

"  Then  I  took  the  poor  little  sufferer's  hand 
and  told  him  I  would  always  take  care  of 
Reuby.  He  understood  me,  and  had  just 
strength  to  look  at  me  as  if  he  would  thank 
me;  then  the  expression  went  out  of  his  blue 
eyes;  and  in  a  moment — 

" '  He  lay  within  the  light  of  God, 
Like  a  babe  upon  the  breast, 
Where  the   wicked  cease   from  troubling, 
And  the  weary  are  at  rest/  " 

Heaven  meant  principle  to  that  little  match- 
boy,  bruised  and  dying.  He  knew  little  where 
he  was  to  go,  but  he  knew  better  than  most 
of  those  who  would  have  spurned  him  from 
their  carriages,  the  value  of  honesty,  truth, 
nobility,  sincerity,  genuineness, — the  qualities 
that  go  to  make  heaven. 


242     PUSHING    TO   THE   FRONT 

In  the  great  monetary  panic  of  1857,  a 
meeting  was  called  of  the  various  bank  pres- 
idents of  New  York  City.  When  asked  what 
percentage  of  specie  had  been  drawn  during 
the  day,  some  replied  fifty  per  cent,  some 
even  as  high  as  seventy-five  per  cent.,  but 
Moses  Taylor  of  the  City  Bank  said :  "  We 
had  in  the  bank  this  morning,  $400,000;  this 
evening,  $470,000."  While  other  banks  were 
badly  "  run,"  the  confidence  in  the  City  Bank 
under  Mr.  Taylor's  management  was  such 
that  people  had  deposited  in  that  institution 
what  they  had  drawn  from  other  banks. 
Character  gives  confidence. 

In  a  yellow  fever  epidemic  at  Memphis, 
the  members  of  the  Relief  Committee  were 
at  their  wits'  end  to  obtain  watchers,  when  a 
man  with  coarse  features,  close-cropped  hair, 
and  shuffling  gait  went  directly  to  one  of  the 
attending  physicians  and  said :  "  I  want  to 
nurse." 

The  doctor  looked  at  him  critically,  con- 
cluded he  was  not  fitted  for  the  work  in  any 
way,  and  replied :  "  You  are  not  needed." 

"  I  wish  to  nurse,"  persisted  the  stranger. 
"Try  me  for  a  week.  If  you  don't  like  me, 
then  dismiss  me;  if  you  do,  pay  me  my 
wages," 


CHARACTER   IS   POWE&       243 

"Very  well,"  said  the  doctor,  "Til  take 
you,  although,  to  be  candid,  I  hesitate  to  do 
so."  Then  he  added  mentally,  "  I'll  keep  my 
eye  on  him." 

But  the  man  soon  proved  that  he  needed 
nobody's  eye  upon  him.  In  a  few  weeks  he 
had  become  one  of  the  most  valuable  nurses 
on  that  heroic  force.  He  was  tireless  and 
self-denying.  Wherever  the  pestilence  raged 
most  fiercely  he  worked  hardest.  The  suffer- 
ing and  the  sinking  adored  him.  To  the  neg- 
lected and  the  forgotten  his  rough  face  was 
as  the  face  of  an  angel. 

He  acted  so  strangely  on  pay-days,  How- 
ever, that  he  was  followed  through  back 
streets  to  an  obscure  place,  where  he  was  seen 
to  put  his  whole  week's  earnings  into  the 
relief-box  for  the  benefit  of  the  yellow-fever 
sufferers.  Not  long  afterwards  he  sickened 
and  died  of  the  plague;  and  when  his  body 
was  prepared  for  its  unnamed  grave,  for  he 
had  never  told  who  he  was,  a  livid  mark  was 
found  which  showed  that  John,  the  nurse,  had 
been  branded  as  a  convicted  felon. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  in  this  money- 
getting  era  that  a  poor  author,  or  a  seedy 
artist,  or  a  college  president  with  frayed 
coat-sleeves,  has  more  standing  in  society  and 


244     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

has  more  paragraphs  written  about  him  in 
the  papers  than  many  a  millionaire.  This  is 
due,  perhaps,  to  the  malign  influence  of 
money-getting  and  to  the  benign  effect  of 
purely  intellectual  pursuits.  As  a  rule  every 
great  success  in  the  money  world  means  the 
failure  and  misery  of  hundreds  of  antago- 
nists. Every  success  in  the  world  of  intel- 
lect and  character  is  an  aid  and  profit  to  so- 
ciety. Character  is  a  mark  cut  upon  some- 
thing, and  this  indelible  mark  determines  the 
only  true  value  of  all  people  and  all  their 
work. 

We  all  believe  in  the  man  of  character. 
What  power  of  magic  lies  in  a  great  name! 
Theodore  Parker  used  to  say  that  Socrates 
was  worth  more  to  a  nation  than  many  such 
states  as  South  Carolina. 

"  It  is  the  nature  of  party  in  England,"  said 
John  Russell,  "  to  ask  the  assistance  of  men 
of  genius,  but  to  follow  the  guidance  of  men 
of  character." 

"  My  road  must  be  through  character  to 
power,"  wrote  Canning  in  1801.  "  I  will  try 
no  other  course;  and  I  am  sanguine  enough 
to  believe  that  this  course,  though  not  per- 
haps the  quickest,  is  the  surest." 

We  can  calculate  the  efficiency  of  an  en- 


CHARACTER  IS   POWER       245 

gine  to  the  last  ounce  of  pressure.  Its  power 
can  be  as  accurately  determined  as  the  tem- 
perature of  a  room.  But  who  can  rightly 
determine  the  inherent  force  of  a  man  of 
predominant  character?  Who  can  estimate 
the  influence  of  a  single  boy  or  girl  upon  the 
character  of  a  school?  Traditions,  customs, 
manners  have  been  changed  for  several 
school  generations  by  one  or  two  strong 
characters,  who  in  their  own  small  way,  but 
none  the  less  important,  have  become  school 
heroes — as  much  real  forces  in  life  as  if  they 
were  locomotives  dragging  loads  of  cars. 
Any  teacher  will  tell  you  that  many  a  school 
has  been  pulled  up  grade,  or  run  down,  by; 
just  such  powerful  characters. 

In  the  army,  fleeing  from  Moscow  amid 
the  bewildering  snows  of  a  biting  Russian 
winter,  was  a  German  prince  whose  sterling 
character  had  endeared  him  to  all  his  sol- 
diers. One  bitter  night,  in  the  ruins  of  a 
shed  built  for  cattle,  all  lay  down  to  sleep, 
cold,  tired,  and  hungry.  At  dawn  the  prince 
awoke,  warm  and  refreshed,  and  listened  to 
the  wind  as  it  howled  and  shrieked  around 
the  shed.  He  called  his  men,  but  received  no 
reply.  Looking  around,  he  found  their  dead 
bodies  covered  with  snow,  while  their  cloaks 


PUSHING   TO  THE   FRONT 

were  piled  upon  himself — their  lives  given  to 
save  his. 

King  Midas,  in  the  ancient  myth,  asked 
that  everything  he  touched  might  be  turned 
to  gold,  for  then,  he  thought,  he  would  be 
perfectly  happy.  His  request  was  granted, 
but  when  his  clothes,  his  food,  his  drink,  the 
flowers  he  plucked,  and  even  his  little  daugh- 
ter, whom  he  kissed,  were  all  changed  into 
yellow  metal,  he  begged  that  the  Golden 
Touch  might  be  taken  from  him.  He  had 
learned  that  many  other  things  are  intrin- 
sically far  more  valuable  than  all  the  gold 
that  was  ever  dug  from  the  earth. 

"These  are  my  jewels,"  said  Cornelia  to 
the  Campanian  lady  who  asked  to  see  her 
gems ;  and  she  pointed  with  pride  to  her  boys 
returning  from  school.  The  reply  was 
worthy  of  the  daughter  of  Scipio  Africanus 
and  wife  of  Tiberius  Gracchus.  The  most 
valuable  production  of  any  country  is  its  crop 
of  men. 

"  I  know  of  no  great  man,"  said  Voltaire, 
"  except  those  who  have  rendered  great  serv- 
ices to  the  human  race."  Men  are  measured 
by  what  they  do,  not  by  what  they  possess. 

"Education — a  debt  due  from  present  to 
future  generations,"  was  the  sentiment  found 


CHARACTER   IS   POWER       247 

in  a  sealed  envelope  opened  during  the  cen- 
tennial celebration  at  Danvers,  Mass.  In  the 
same  envelope  was  a  check  for  twenty  thou- 
sand dollars  for  a  town  library  and  institute. 
The  sender  was  George  Peabody,  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  men  of  his  century,  once  a 
poor  boy,  but  then  a  millionaire  banker.  At 
another  banquet  given  in  his  honor  at  Dan- 
vers, years  afterwards,  he  gave  two  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  dollars  to  the  same  insti- 
tute. "  Steadfast  and  undeviating  truth,"  said 
he,  "  fearless  and  straightforward  integrity, 
and  an  honor  ever  unsullied  by  an  unworthy 
word  or  action,  make  their  possessor  greater 
than  worldly  success  or  prosperity.  These 
qualities  constitute  greatness." 

The  honesty  and  integrity  of  A.  T.  Stewart 
won  for  him  a  great  reputation,  and  the 
young  schoolmaster  who  began  life  in  New 
York  on  less  than  a  dollar  a  day  amassed 
nearly  forty  million  dollars,  and  there  was 
not  a  smirched  dollar  in  all  those  millions. 

On  the  2d  of  September,  1792,  the  popu- 
lace broke  into  the  prisons  of  Paris,  crowded 
almost  to  suffocation  with  aristocrats  and 
priests.  These  fell  like  grain  before  the 
scythe  of  the  reaper.  But  in  the  midst  of 
that  wild  revel  of  blood,  a  sans  culotte  recog- 


248     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

nized  the  Abbe  Sicard,  who  had  spent  his  life 
teaching  the  deaf  and  dumb,  and  in  whose 
house — 


"The  cunning  fingers  finely  twined 
The  subtle  thread  that  knitteth  mind  to  mind; 
There  that  strange  bridge  of  signs  was  built 

where  roll 

The  sunless  waves  that  sever  soul  from  soul, 
And  by  the  arch,  no  bigger  than  a  hand, 
Truth  traveled  over  to  the  silent  land." 

"  Behold  the  bosom  through  which  you 
must  pass  to  reach  that  of  this  good  citizen," 
said  Mounot,  who  knew  the  abbe  only  by 
sight  and  reputation ;  "  you  do  not  know  him. 
He  is  the  Abbe  Sicard,  one  of  the  most  be- 
nevolent of  men,  the  most  useful  to  his  coun- 
try, the  father  of  the  deaf  and  dumb."  And 
the  murderers  around  not  only  desisted  from 
attacking,  but  embraced  the  abbe,  and  wished 
to  carry  him  home  in  their  arms.  Even  in 
that  blood-stained  throng  the  power  of  a 
noble  character  was  still  supreme. 

Do  you  call  him  successful  who  wears  a 
bull-dog  expression  that  but  too  plainly  tells 
the  story  of  how  he  gained  his  fortune,  tak- 
ing but  never  giving?  Can  you  not  read  in 
that  brow-beating  face  the  sad  experience  of 


CHARACTER  IS   POWER       249 

widows  and  orphans?  Do  you  call  him  a  self- 
made  man  who  has  unmade  others  to  make 
himself, — who  tears  others  down  to  build 
himself  up?  Can  a  man  be  really  rich  who 
makes  others  poorer?  Can  he  be  happy  in 
whose  every  lineament  chronic  avarice  is  seen 
as  plainly  as  hunger  in  the  countenance  of  a 
wolf?  How  seldom  sweet,  serene,  beautiful 
faces  are  seen  on  men  who  have  been  very 
successful  as  the  world  rates  success!  Na- 
ture expresses  in  the  face  and  manner  the 
sentiment  which  rules  the  heart. 

No  man  deserves  to  be  crowned  with  honor 
whose  life  is  a  failure,  and  he  who  lives  only 
to  eat  and  drink  and  accumulate  money  is 
surely  not  successful.  The  world  is  no  bet- 
ter for  his  living  in  it.  He  never  wiped  a 
tear  from  a  sad  face,  never  kindled  a  fire 
upon  a  frozen  hearth.  There  is  no  flesh  in 
his  heart;  he  worships  no  god  but  gold. 

In  the  days  of  the  Abolitionists,  a  great 
"Union  Saving  Committee"  of  their  oppo- 
nents met  at  Castle  Garden,  New  York,  and 
decided  that  merchants  who  would  not  op- 
pose the  "fanatics"  should  be  put  on  a 
"  Black  List "  and  crushed  financially. 
Messrs.  Bowen  &  McNamee,  however,  stated 
in  their  advertisements  that  they  hoped  to 


250     PUSHING   TO   THE  FRONT 

sell  their  silks,  but  would  not  sell  their  prin- 
ciples. Their  independent  stand  created  a 
great  sensation  throughout  the  country. 
People  wanted  to  buy  of  men  who  would  not 
sell  themselves. 

The  world,  it  is  said,  is  always  looking  for 
men  who  are  not  for  sale ;  men  who  are  hon- 
est, sound  from  center  to  circumference,  true 
to  the  heart's  core;  men  whose  consciences 
are  as  steady  as  the  needle  to  the  pole;  men 
who  will  stand  for  the  right  if  the  heavens 
totter  and  the  earth  reels;  men  who  can  tell 
the  truth,  and  look  the  world  and  the  devil 
right  in  the  eye;  men  that  neither  brag  nor 
run;  men  that  neither  flag  nor  flinch;  men 
who  can  have  courage  without  shouting  to  it , 
men  who  know  their  own  business  and  attend 
to  it ;  men  who  will  not  lie,  shirk,  nor  dodge ; 
men  who  are  not  afraid  to  say  "  No "  with 
emphasis,  and  who  are  not  ashamed  to  say, 
"  I  can't  afford  it." 

Sir  Philip  Sidney,  mortally  wounded  at 
Zutphen,  was  tortured  by  thirst  from  his 
great  loss  of  blood.  Water  was  carried  to 
him.  A  wounded  soldier  borne  by  on  a  litter 
fixed  his  eyes  upon  the  bottle  with  such  a 
wistful  gaze  that  Sidney  insisted  on  giving 
it  to  him,  saying,  "  Thy  necessity  is  greater 


CHARACTER   IS   POWER       251 

than  mine."  Sidney  died,  but  this  deed  alone 
would  have  made  his  name  honored  when 
that  of  the  king  he  served  is  forgotten. 
Florence  Nightingale  tells  of  soldiers  suffer- 
ing with  dysentery,  who,  scorning  to  report 
themselves  sick  lest  they  should  force  more 
labor  on  their  overworked  comrades,  would 
go  down  to  the  trenches  and  make  them  their 
death-beds.  Say  what  you  will,  there  is  in 
the  man  who  gives  his  time,  his  strength,  his 
life,  if  need  be,  for  something  not  himself, — 
whether  he  call  it  his  queen,  his  country,  his 
colors,  or  his  fellow  man, — something  more 
truly  Christian  than  in  all  the  ascetic  fasts, 
humiliations,  and  confessions  that  have  ever 
been  made. 

"  I  have  read,"  Emerson  says,  "  that  they 
who  listened  to  Lord  Chatham  felt  that  there 
was  something  finer  in  the  man  than  anything 
which  he  said."  It  has  been  complained  of 
Carlyle  that  when  he  has  told  all  his  facts 
about  Mirabeau  they  do  not  justify  his  esti- 
mate of  the  latter's  genius.  The  Gracchi, 
Agis,  Cleomenes,  and  others  of  Plutarch's 
heroes  do  not  in  the  record  of  facts  equal 
their  own  fame.  Sir  Philip  Sidney  and  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh  are  men  of  great  figure  and 
of  few  deeds.  We  cannot  find  the  smallest 


252     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

part  of  the  personal  weight  of  Washington 
in  the  narrative  of  his  exploits.  The  author- 
ity of  the  name  of  Schiller  is  too  great  for 
his  books.  This  inequality  of  the  reputation 
to  the  works  or  the  anecdotes  is  not  ac- 
counted for  by  saying  that  the  reverberation 
is  longer  than  the  thunder-clap;  but  some- 
thing resided  in  these  men  which  begot  an 
expectation  that  outran  all  their  perform- 
ance. The  largest  part  of  their  power  was 
latent.  This  is  that  which  we  call  character, 
— a  reserved  force  which  acts  directly  by 
presence,  and  without  means.  What  others 
effect  by  talent  or  eloquence,  the  man  of 
character  accomplishes  by  some  magnetism. 
"Half  his  strength  he  puts  not  forth."  His 
victories  are  by  demonstration  of  superiority, 
and  not  by  crossing  bayonets.  He  conquers, 
because  his  arrival  alters  the  face  of  affairs. 
There  are  men  and  women  in  every  coun- 
try who  conquer  before  they  speak.  They 
exert  an  influence  out  of  all  proportion  to 
their  ability,  and  people  wonder  what  is  the 
secret  of  their  power  over  men.  It  is  nat- 
ural for  all  classes  to  believe  in  and  to  fol- 
low character,  for  character  is  power.  Never 
did  Caesar  exert  a  greater  influence  over  the 
Roman  people  than  when  he  lay  upon  the 


CHARACTER   IS   POWER       253 

marble  floor  of  the  senate,  pierced  by  cruel 
daggers, — his  wounds  so  many  open  mouths 
pleading  for  him. 

It  was  said  of  General  Sheridan :  "  Had 
he  possessed  principle  he  might  have  ruled 
the  world."  How  few  young  men  realize  that 
their  success  in  life  depends  more  upon  what 
they  are  than  upon  what  they  know!  It  was 
character,  not  ability,  that  elected  Washing- 
ton and  Lincoln  to  the  presidency.  Webster 
bid  high  for  it.  The  price  was  his  honor — 
all  his  former  convictions.  When  a  farmer 
heard  that  he  had  lost  the  nomination,  he 
said :  "  The  South  never  pays  its  slaves." 

What  is  this  principle  that  Napoleon  and 
Webster  lacked  ?  Is  it  not  a  deathless  loyalty 
to  the  highest  ideal  which  the  world  has  been 
able  to  produce  up  to  the  present  date?  This 
is  what  we  admire  and  respect  in  strong  men 
whose  roots  are  deep  in  the  ground  and  whose 
character  is  robust  enough  to  keep  them  like 
oaks  in  their  places  when  all  around  is  whirl- 
ing. 

When  promised  protection  in  Turkey  if  he 
would  embrace  the  Mohammedan  religion,  the 
exiled  Kossuth  replied :  "  Between  death  and 
shame,  I  have  never  been  dubious.  Though 
once  the  governor  of  a  generous  people,  I 


254     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

leave  no  inheritance  to  my  children.  That 
were  at  least  better  than  an  insulted  name. 
God's  will  be  done.  I  am  prepared  to  die/' 
"  These  hands  of  mine,"  he  said  at  another 
time,  "are  empty,  but  clean." 

When  Petrarch  approached  the  tribunal  to 
take  the  customary  oath  as  a  witness,  he  was 
told  that  such  was  the  confidence  of  the  court 
in  his  veracity  that  his  word  would  be  suffi- 
cient, and  he  would  not  be  required  to  swear 
to  his  testimony. 

Hugh  Miller  was  offered  the  position  of 
cashier  in  a  large  bank,  but  declined,  saying 
that  he  knew  little  of  accounts,  and  could  not 
get  a  bondsman.  "  We  do  not  require  bonds 
of  you/'  said  Mr.  Ross,  president  of  the  bank. 
Miller  did  not  even  know  that  Ross  knew 
him.  Our  characteristics  are  always  under 
inspection,  whether  we  realize  it  or  not. 

Vittoria  Colonna  wrote  her  husband,  when 
the  princes  of  Italy  urged  him  to  desert  the 
Spanish  cause,  to  which  he  was  bound  by 
every  tie  of  faithfulness,  "  Remember  your 
honor,  which  raises  you  above  kings.  By  that 
alone,  and  not  by  titles  and  splendor,  is  glory 
acquired — the  glory  which  it  will  be  your 
happiness  and  pride  to  transmit  unspotted  to 
your  posterity." 


CHARACTER  IS   POWER       255 

When  Thoreau  lay  dying,  a  Calvinistic 
friend  asked  anxiously,  "  Henry,  have  you 
made  your  peace  with  God  ?  "  "  John,"  whis- 
pered the  dying  naturalist,  "I  didn't  know 
God  and  myself  had  quarreled." 

Lincoln,  although  President  of  a  great  peo- 
ple, was  the  laughing-stock  of  the  aristocratic 
and  fashionable  circles  of  Europe.  The  illus- 
trated papers  of  all  Christendom  caricatured 
the  awkwardness  and  want  of  dignity  of 
this  backwoods  graduate.  Politicians  were 
shocked  at  the  simplicity  of  his  state  papers, 
and  wished  to  make  them  more  conventional ; 
but  Lincoln  only  replied,  "  The  people  will 
understand  them."  Even  in  Washington  he 
was  ridiculed  as  "the  ape,"  "stupid  block- 
head," and  "  satyr."  On  reading  these  terri- 
ble denunciations  and  criticisms,  he  once 
said,  "  Well,  Abraham  Lincoln,  are  you  a 
man  or  are  you  a  dog?"  After  the  repulse 
at  Fredericksburg  he  said,  "  If  there  is  a  man 
out  of  hell  that  suffers  more  than  I  do,  I 
pity  him/'  But  the  great  heart  of  the  com- 
mon people  beat  in  unison  with  his.  The 
poor  operatives  in  European  cotton-mills 
sometimes  nearly  starved  for  lack  of  cotton, 
but  they  never  petitioned  their  government  to 
break  Lincoln's  blockade.  Working  people 


256    PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

the  world  over  believed  in  and  sympathized 
with  him. 

No  man  ever  lived  of  whom  it  could  have 
been  more  truly  said  that, — 

"The  elements 

So  mixed  in  him  that  Nature  might  stand  up 
And  say  to  all  the  world,  '  This  is  a  man ! '  * 

Lincoln  always  yearned  for  a  rounded 
wholeness  of  character;  and  his  fellow  law- 
yers called  him  "  perversely  honest."  Noth- 
ing could  induce  him  to  take  the  wrong  side 
of  a  case,  or  to  continue  on  that  side  after 
learning  that  it  was  unjust  or  hopeless.  After 
giving  considerable  time  to  a  case  in  which 
he  had  received  from  a  lady  a  retainer  of 
two  hundred  dollars,  he  returned  the  money, 
saying :  "  Madam,  you  have  not  a  peg  to 
hang  your  case  on."  "  But  you  have  earned 
that  money,"  said  the  lady.  "  No,  no,"  re- 
plied Lincoln,  "  that  would  not  be  right.  I 
can't  take  pay  for  doing  my  duty." 

There  should  be  something  in  a  man's  life 
greater  than  his  occupation  or  his  achieve- 
ments ;  grander  than  acquisition  or  wealth ; 
higher  than  genius;  more  enduring  than 
fame.  Men  and  nations  put  their  trust  in 
education,  culture,  and  the  refining  influences 


CHARACTER   IS   POWER       257 

of  civilized  life,  but  these  alone  can  never 
elevate  or  save  a  people.  Art,  luxury,  and 
degradation  have  been  boon  companions  all 
down  the  centuries. 

If  there  is  any  one  power  in  the  world 
that  will  make  itself  felt,  it  is  character. 
There  may  be  little  culture,  slender  abilities, 
no  property,  no  position  in  "  society " ;  yet, 
if  there  be  a  character  of  sterling  excellence, 
it  will  demand  influence  and  secure  respect. 

"  A  right  act  strikes  a  chord  that  extends 
through  the  whole  universe,  touches  all  moral 
intelligence,  visits  every  world,  vibrates  along 
its  whole  extent,  and  conveys  its  vibrations  to 
the  very  bosom  of  God." 

Louis  XIV.  asked  Colbert  how  it  was  that, 
ruling  so  great  and  populous  a  country  as 
France,  he  had  been  unable  to  conquer  so 
small  a  country  as  Holland.  "  Because,"  said 
the  minister,  '-the  greatness  of  a  country 
does  not  depend  upon  the  extent  of  Its  terri- 
tory, but  on  the  character  of  its  people." 

The  characters  of  great  men  are  the  dowry 
of  a  nation.  An  English  tanner  whose  leather 
gained  a  great  reputation  said  he  should  not 
have  made  it  so  good  had  he  not  read  Car- 
lyle.  It  is  said  that  Franklin  reformed  the 
manners  of  a  whole  workshop  in  London. 


258     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

Ariosto  and  Titian  inspired  each  other  and 
heightened  each  other's  glory.  "  Tell  me 
whom  you  admire,  and  I  will  tell  you  what 
you  are."  A  book  or  work  of  art  puts  us  in 
the  mood  or  train  of  thought  <of  him  who 
produced  it.  Is  Michael  Angelo  dead?  Ask 
the  hundreds  of  thousands  who  have  gazed 
with  rapt  souls  upon  his  immortal  works  at 
Rome.  In  how  many  thousands  of  lives  has 
he  lived  and  reigned?  Are  Washington, 
Grant,  and  Lincoln  dead?  Did  they  ever 
live  more  truly  than  to-day?  What  Amer- 
ican heart  or  home  does  not  enshrine  their 
characters  ? 

Picture  to  yourself,  if  you  can,  Egypt  with- 
out a  Moses,  Babylon  without  a  Daniel, 
Athens  without  a  Demosthenes,  Phidias,  Soc- 
rates, or  Plato.  What  was  Carthage,  two 
hundred  years  before  Christ,  without  her 
Hannibal?  What  was  Rome  without  her 
Caesar,  her  Cicero,  Marcus  Aurelius?  What 
is  Paris  without  her  Napoleon,  and  Hugo, 
and  Pere  Hyacinth?  What  is  England  with- 
out her  Newton,  Shakespeare,  Milton,  Pitt, 
Burke,  Gladstone? 

Through  all  the  centuries  of  Italy's  degra- 
dation Dante's  name  was  the  watchword  of 
the  country,  while  in  the  brain  of  many  a 


CHARACTER   IS   POWER       259 

slave  still  echoed  the  impassioned  words  of 
Cicero,  of  the  Scipios,  and  the  Gracchi.  By- 
ron said :  "  The  Italians  talk  Dante,  write 
Dante,  and  think  Dante  at  this  moment  to  an 
excess  which  would  be  ridiculous  but  that  he 
deserves  their  admiration."  Even  degenerate 
Greece  is  not  dead  to  the  influence  of  the 
intellectual  and  moral  giants  of  her  golden 
age.  They  still  hold  sway  throughout  the 
earth,  more  potent  than  when  living,  in  the 
realm  of  thought  and  feeling.  Our  minds  are 
shaped  by  the  combined  influence  of  the  minds 
of  men  called  dead,  nearly  as  strongly  as  by 
those  with  whom  we  associate  in  life;  our 
creeds  are  sanctified  by  the  devotion  of  mar- 
tyrs in  whose  sufferings  under  persecution 
we  share  through  sympathy,  and  are  thereby 
ennobled;  our  deeds  are  such  as  we  feel  that 
our  ideals  would  have  performed  under  like 
conditions. 

"  But  strew  his  ashes  to  the  wind 
Whose  sword  or  voice  has  served  mankind— 
And  is  he  dead,  whose  glorious  mind 

Lifts  thine  on  high? 
To  live  in  hearts  we  leave  behind 

Is  not  to  die." 

Low,  aimless  lives  leave  their  mark  upon 
the  character  as  truly  as  the  Creator  branded 


260    PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

Cain  with  his  guilt.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
are  men  in  whom  the  very  dogs  of  the  street 
believe.  Character  is  power. 

We  resemble  insects  which  assume  the 
color  of  the  leaves  and  plants  they  feed  upon, 
for  sooner  or  later  we  become  like  the  food 
of  our  minds,  like  the  creatures  that  live  in 
our  hearts.  Every  act  of  our  lives,  every 
word,  every  association,  is  written  with  an 
iron  pen  into  the  very  texture  of  our  being. 
The  ghosts  of  our  murdered  opportunities, 
squandered  forces,  killed  time,  forever  rise 
up  to  rebuke  us,  and  will  not  down.  How 
hard  it  is  to  learn  that  Hke  begets  like;  that 
an  acorn  will  always  become  an  oak,  if  any- 
thing; that  birds  of  a  feather  will  flock  to- 
gether; that  there  is  a  magnetic  affinity  be- 
tween kindred  things  which  inevitably  brings 
them  together,  and  that  they  must  communi- 
cate their  own  properties  and  nothing  else; 
that  they  cannot  possibly  do  differently. 

Association  with  the  good  can  only  pro- 
duce good ;  with  the  wicked,  evil.  No  matter 
how  sly,  how  secret,  no  matter  if  our  asso- 
ciations have  been  in  the  dark,  their  images 
will  sooner  or  later  appear  in  our  faces  and 
conduct.  The  idols  of  the  heart  look  through 
our  eyes,  appear  in  our  manners,  and  betray 


CHARACTER   IS   POWER       261 

their  worshipers.  Our  associates,  our  loves, 
hates,  struggles,  triumphs,  defeats,  dissipa- 
tions, aspirations,  intrigues,  honesty,  dishon- 
esty, all  leave  their  indelible  autographs  upon 
the  soul's  window  and  are  published  to  the 
world.  Black  hearts  cast  black  shadows 
upon  the  face  which  all  our  will  power  can- 
not drive  away.  What  a  panorama  passes 
across  the  face  of  a  dissipated  life!  Behold 
the  barrooms,  the  dens  of  infamy,  the  dissi- 
pated wretches,  the  polluted  companions,  the 
disgusting  scenes,  the  askings  and  denyings 
of  passions,  the  struggle  for  victory,  the 
broken  resolutions,  the  sore  defeats.  But  oh, 
what  radiance  glorifies  the  faces  of  those  who 
have  overcome  temptation  and  disciplined 
their  powers  in  striving  for  self-improvement ! 
He  is  the  greatest  man,  to  me,  at  least,  who 
emancipates  me  from  the  imprisonment  of 
my  surroundings  and  environments,  who 
loosens  my  tongue,  and  unlocks  the  flood- 
gates of  my  possibilities.  He  is  a  lens  to  my 
defective  vision.  I  see  things  in  a  broader 
light,  my  horizon  extends,  my  possibilities 
expand.  My  nerves  thrill  with  the  conscious- 
ness of  added  force.  My  whole  being  vi- 
brates with  the  magnetic  currents  from  an. 
other  soul. 


262    PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

Anger  begets  anger,  and  hate,  hate;  the 
passions  are  contagious.  Actors  tell  us  that 
they  often  go  upon  the  stage  with  heavy 
hearts  and  melancholy  moods,  when  they 
have  to  play  light  and  gay  characters,  with- 
out the  slightest  feeling  of  sympathy  with  the 
parts  they  have  taken;  yet  so  powerful  is  the 
law  of  association  and  suggestion  that  the 
moment  they  assume  the  attitude  of  the  char- 
acter, the  real  feelings  which  belong  to  it 
come  to  them. 

"  Character  is  always  known,"  says  Emer- 
son. "  Thefts  never  enrich ;  alms  never  im- 
poverish ;  murder  will  speak  out  of  stone 
walls.  The  least  mixture  of  a  lie — for  ex- 
ample, the  taint  of  vanity,  any  attempt  to 
make  a  good  impression,  a  favorable  appear- 
ance— will  instantly  vitiate  the  effect.  But 
speak  the  truth  and  all  .nature  and  all  spirits 
help  you  with  unexpected  furtherance." 

Character  is  the  poor  man's  capital. 

"  When  I  asked  you  for  anecdotes  upon 
the  age  of  this  king,"  said  Voltaire,  while 
preparing  his  "  History  of  Louis  XIV.,"  "  I 
referred  less  to  the  king  himself  than  to  the 
art  which  flourished  in  his  reign.  I  should 
prefer  details  relating  to  Racine  and  Boileau, 
to  Sully,  Moliere,  Lebrun,  Bossuet,  Poussin, 


CHARACTER    IS    POWER       263 

Descartes,  and  others,  than  to  the  battle  of 
Steinkirk.  Nothing  but4  a  name  Pemains  of 
those  who  commanded  battalions  and  fleets, 
nothing  results  to  the  human  race  from  a 
hundred  battles  gained ;  but  the  great  men  of 
whom  I  have  spoken  prepared  pure  and  dura- 
ble delights  for  generations  unborn.  A  canal 
that  connects  the  sfcis,  a  picture  by  Poussin, 
a  beautiful  tragedy,  a  discovered  truth,  are 
things  a  thousand  times  more  precious  than 
all  the  annals  of  the  court,  than  all  the  nar- 
ratives of  war.  You  know  that  with  me 
great  men  rank  first.,  heroes  last.  I  call  great 
men  those  who  have  excelled  in  the  useful 
or  the  agreeable.  The  ravagers  of  provinces 
are  mere  heroes." 

"  Not  a  child  did  I  injure,"  says  the  epi- 
taph of  an  Egyptian  ruler  who  lived  in  a 
pagan  age  more  than  forty  centuries  ago. 
"  Not  a  widow  did  I  oppress.  Not  a  herds- 
man did  I  ill  treat.  There  were  no  beggars 
in  my  day,  no  one  starved  in  my  time.  And 
when  the  years  of  famine  came,  I  plowed 
all  the  lands  of  the  province  to  its  northern 
and  southern  boundaries,  feeding  its  inhabi- 
tants and  providing  their  food.  There  was 
no  starving  person  in  it,  and  I  made  the 
widow  to  be  as  though  she  possessed  a  hus- 


264    PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

band."  What  ruler  can  say  as  much  in  our 
enlightened  age? 

There  are  men  who  choose  honesty  as  a 
soul  companion.  They  embody  it  in  their 
actions  and  lives.  Their  words  speak  it. 
They  live  in  it,  with  it,  by  it.  Their  hands 
are  true  to  it.  They  are  full  of  it.  They 
love  it.  It  is  to  them  li*e  a  god.  Not  gold, 
or  crowns,  or  fame  could  bribe  them  to  leave 
it.  It  makes  them  beautiful  men,  noble,  great, 
brave,  righteous  men. 

"  No  man  has  come  to  true  greatness,"  said 
Phillips  Brooks,  "who  has  not  felt  in  some 
degree  that  his  life  belongs  to  his  race,  and 
that  what  God  gives  him,  He  gives  him  for 
mankind." 

'The  rank  is  but  the  guinea's  stamp 
The  man's  the  gowd  for  a'  that." 

"The  noblest  men  that  live  on  earth 
Are  men  whose  hands  are  brown  with  toil, 
Who,  backed  by  no  ancestral  graves, 
Hew  down  the  woods  and  till  the  soil, 
And  win  thereby  a  prouder  name 
Than  follows  king's  or  warrior's  fame." 


XIII.   ENAMORED   OF  ACCURACY 

"Antonio  Stradivari  has  an  eye 
That  winces  at  false  work  and  loves  the  true." 

Accuracy  is  the  twin  brother  of  honesty. — C. 
SIMMONS. 

Genius  is  the  infinite  art  of  taking  pains. — CAR- 

LYLE. 

I  hate  a  thing  done  by  halves.  If  it  be  right,  do 
it  boldly;  if  it  be  wrong,  leave  it  undone. — GILPIN. 

If  I  were  a  cobbler,  it  would  be  my  pride 

The  best  of  all  cobblers  to  be; 
If  I  were  a  tinker,  no  tinker  beside 
Should  mend  an  old  kettle  like  me. 

OLD  SONG. 

If  a  man  can  write  a  better  book,  preach  a  better 
sermon,  or  make  a  better  mouse-trap  than  his 
neighbor,  though  he  build  his  house  in  the  woods, 
the  world  will  make  a  beaten  path  to  his  door. — 
EMERSON. 

IR,  it  is  a  watch  which  I 
have  made  and  regulated 
myself,"  said  George  Gra- 
ham of  London  to  a  cus- 
tomer who  asked  how  far 
he  could  depend  upon  its 
keeping  correct  time ;  "  take  it  with  you 
wherever  you  please.  If  after  seven  years 
you  come  back  to  see  me,  and  can  tell  me 
there  has  been  a  difference  of  five  minutes, 
265 


266     PUSHING   TO  THE   FRONT 

I  will  return  you  your  money."  Seven  years 
later  the  gentleman  returned  from  India. 
"  Sir,"  said  he,  "  I  bring  you  back  your 
watch." 

"  I  remember  our  conditions,"  said  Gra- 
ham. "Let  me  see  the  watch.  Well,  what 
do  you  complain  of?"  "Why,  said  the 
man,  "  I  have  had  it  seven  years,  and  there 
is  a  difference  of  more  than  five  minutes." 

"  Indeed !  In  that  case  I  return  you  your 
money."  "  I  would  not  part  with  my  watch," 
said  the  man,  "  for  ten  times  the  sum  I  paid 
for  it."  "And  I  would  not  break  my  word 
for  any  consideration,"  replied  Graham;  so 
he  paid  the  money  and  took  the  watch,  which 
he  used  as  a  regulator. 

He  learned  his  trade  of  Tampion,  the  most 
exquisite  mechanic  in  London,  if  not  in  the 
world,  whose  name  on  a  timepiece  was  con- 
sidered proof  positive  of  its  excellence.  When 
a  person  once  asked  him  to  repair  a  watch 
upon  which  his  name  was  fraudulently  en- 
graved, Tampion  smashed  it  with  a  hammer, 
and  handed  the  astonished  customer  one  of 
his  own  masterpieces,  saying,  "  Sir,  here  is 
a  watch  of  my  making." 

Graham  invented  the  "  compensating  mer- 
cury pendulum,"  the  "  dead  escapement,"  and 


ENAMORED    OF    ACCURACY    267 

the  "  orrery,"  none  of  which  have  been  mucli 
improved  since.  The  clock  which  he  made 
for  Greenwich  Observatory  has  been  running 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  yet  it  needs 
regulating  but  once  in  fifteen  months.  Tam- 
pion and  Graham  lie  in  Westminster  Abbey, 
because  of  the  accuracy  of  their  work. 

To  insure  safety,  a  navigator  must  know 
how  far  he  is  from  the  equator,  north  or 
south,  and  how  far  east  or  west  of  some 
known  point,  as  Greenwich,  Paris,  or  Wash- 
ington. !He  could  be  sure  of  this  knowledge 
when  the  sun  is  shining,  if  he  could  have  an 
absolutely  accurate  timekeeper;  but  such  a 
thing  has  not  yet  been  made.  In  the  six- 
teenth century  Spain  offered  a  prize  of  a 
thousand  crowns  for  the  discovery  of  an  ap- 
proximately correct  method  of  determining 
longitude.  About  two  hundred  years  later 
the  English  government  offered  £5,000  for 
a  chronometer  by  which  a  ship  six  months 
from  home  could  get  her  longitude  within 
sixty  miles;  £7,500  if  within  forty  miles; 
£10,000  if  within  thirty  miles ;  and  in  another 
clause  £20,000  for  correctness  within  thirty 
miles,  a  careless  repetition.  The  watch- 
makers of  the  world  contested  for  the  prizes, 
but  1761  came,  and  they  had  not  been 


268     PUSHING   TO  THE   FRONT 

awarded.  In  that  year  John  Harrison  asked 
for  a  test  of  his  chronometer.  In  a  trip  of 
one  hundred  and  forty-seven  days  from 
Portsmouth  to  Jamaica  and  back,  it  varied 
less  than  two  minutes,  and  only  four  seconds 
on  the  outward  voyage.  In  a  round  trip  of 
one  hundred  and  fifty-six  days  to  Barbadoes, 
the  variation  was  only  fifteen  seconds.  The 
£20,000  was  paid  to  the  man  who  had  worked 
and  experimented  for  forty  years,  and  whose 
hand  was  as  exquisitely  delicate  in  its  move- 
ment as  the  mechanism  of  his  chronometer. 

"  Make  me  as  good  a  hammer  as  you  know 
how,"  said  a  carpenter  to  the  blacksmith  in 
a  New  York  village  before  the  first  railroad 
was  built ;  "  six  of  us  have  come  to  work 
on  the  new  church,  and  I've  left  mine  at 
home."  "  As  good  a  one  as  I  know  how  ?  " 
asked  David  Maydole,  doubtfully,  "but  per- 
haps you  don't  want  to  pay  for  as  good  a 
one  as  I  know  how  to  make."  "  Yes,  I  do," 
said  the  carpenter,  "  I  want  a  good  hammer." 

It  was  indeed  a  good  hammer  that  he  re- 
ceived, the  best,  probably,  that  had  ever  been 
made.  By  means  of  a  longer  hole  than  usual, 
David  had  wedged  the  handle  in  its  place  so 
that  the  head  could  not  fly  off,  a  wonderful 
improvement  in  the  eyes  of  the  carpenter, 


ENAMORED    OF    ACCURACY    269 

who  boasted  of  his  prize  to  his  companions. 
They  all  came  to  the  shop  next  day,  and 
each  ordered  just  such  a  hammer.  When 
the  contractor  saw  the  tools,  he  ordered  two 
for  himself,  asking-  that  they  be  made  a  little 
better  than  those  of  his  men.  "  I  can't  make 
any  better  ones,"  said  Maydole;  "when  I 
make  a  thing,  I  make  it  as  well  as  I  can,  no 
matter  whom  it  is  for." 

The  storekeeper  soon  ordered  two  dozen, 
a  supply  unheard  of  in  his  previous  business 
career.  A  New  York  dealer  in  tools  came  to 
the  village  to  sell  his  wares,  and  bought  all 
the  storekeeper  had,  and  left  a  standing  order 
for  all  the  blacksmith  could  make.  David 
might  have  grown  very  wealthy  by  making 
goods  of  the  standard  already  attained;  but 
throughout  his  long  and  successful  life  he 
never  ceased  to  study  still  further  to  perfect 
his  hammers  in  the  minutest  detail.  They 
were  usually  sold  without  any  warrant  of 
excellence,  the  word  "  Maydole  "  stamped  on 
the  head  being  universally  considered  a  guar- 
anty of  the  best  article  the  world  could  pro- 
duce. 

Character  is  power,  and  is  the  best  adver- 
tisement in  the  world. 

"  We  have  no  secret,"  said  the  manager  of 


270     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

an  iron  works  employing  thousands  of  men. 
"We  always  try  to  beat  our  last  batch  of 
rails.  That  is  all  the  secret  we've  got,  and 
we  don't  care  who  knows  it." 

"  I  don't  try  to  see  how  cheap  a  machine 
I  can  produce,  but  how  good  a  machine," 
said  the  late  John  C.  Whitin,  of  Northbridge, 
Mass.,  to  a  customer  who  complained  of  the 
high  price  of  some  cotton  machinery.  Busi- 
ness men  soon  learned  what  this  meant;  and 
when  there  was  occasion  to  advertise  any 
machinery  for  sale,  New  England  cotton 
manufacturers  were  accustomed  to  state  the 
number  of  years  it  had  been  in  use  and  add, 
as  an  all-sufficient  guaranty  of  Northbridge 
products,  "Whitin  make." 

"  Madam,"  said  the  sculptor  H.  K.  Brown, 
as  he  admired  a  statue  in  alabaster  made  by 
a  youth  in  his  teens,  "  this  boy  has  something 
in  him."  It  was  the  figure  of  an  Irishman 
who  worked  for  the  Ward  family  in  Brook- 
lyn years  ago,  and  gave  with  minutest  fidel- 
ity not  merely  the  man's  features  and  expres- 
sion, but;  even  the  patches  in  his  trousers,  the 
rent  in  his  coat,  and  the  creases  in  his  nar- 
row-brimmed stove-pipe  hat.  Mr.  Brown 
saw  the  statue  at  the  house  of  a  lady  living 
at  Newburgh-on-the-Hudson.  Six  years  later 


ENAMORED    OF    ACCURACY    271 

he  invited  her  brother,  J.  Q.  A.  Ward,  to 
become  a  pupil  in  his  studio.  To-day  the 
name  of  Ward  is  that  of  the  most  prosperous 
of  all  American  sculptors. 

"  Paint  me  just  as  I  am,  warts  and  all," 
said  Oliver  Cromwell  to  the  artist  who,  think- 
ing to  please  the  great  man,  had  omitted  a 
mole. 

"  I  can  remember  when  you  blacked  my 
father's  shoes,"  said  one  member  of  the 
House  of  Commons  to  another  in  the  heat 
of  debate.  "True  enough,"  was  the  prompt 
reply,  "but  did  I  not  black  them  well?" 

"  It  is  easy  to  tell  good  indigo,"  said  an 
old  lady.  "Just  take  a  lump  and  put  it  into 
water,  and  if  it  is  good,  it  will  either  sink  or 
swim,  I  am  not  sure  which;  but  never  mind, 
you  can  try  it  for  yourself." 

John  B.  Gough  told  of  a  colored  preacher 
who,  wishing  his  congregation  to  fresco  the 
recess  back  of  the  pulpit,  suddenly  closed  his 
Bible  and  said,  "  There,  my  bredren,  de  Gos- 
pel will  not  be  dispensed  v/ith  any  more  from 
dis  pulpit  till  de  collection  am  sufficient  to 
fricassee  dis  abscess." 

When  troubled  with  deafness,  Wellington 
consulted  a  celebrated  physician,  who  put 
strong  caustic  into  his  ear,  causing  an  in- 


272     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

flammation  which  threatened  his  life.  The 
doctor  apologized,  expressed  great  regrets, 
and  said  that  the  blunder  would  ruin  him. 
"  No,"  said  Wellington,  "  I  will  never  men- 
tion it."  "But  you  will  allow  me  to  attend 
you,  so  that  people  will  not  withdraw  their 
confidence  ? "  "  No,"  said  the  Iron  Duke, 
•"that  would  be  lying." 

"  Father,"  said  a  boy,  "  I  saw  an  immense 
number  of  dogs — five  hundred,  I  am  sure — < 
in  our  street,  last  night."  "  Surely  not  so 
many,"  said  the  father.  "Well,  there  were 
one  hundred,  I  'm  quite  sure."  "  It  could  not 
be,"  said  the  father;  "I  don't  think  there 
are  a  hundred  dogs  in  our  village."  "  Well, 
sir,  it  could  not  be  less  than  ten:  this  I  am 
quite  certain  of."  "  I  will  not  believe  you 
saw  ten  even,"  said  the  father ;  "  for  you 
spoke  as  confidently  of  seeing  five  hundred 
as  of  seeing  this  smaller  number.  You  have 
contradicted  yourself  twice  already,  and  now 
I  cannot  believe  you."  "  Well,  sir,"  said  the 
disconcerted  boy,  "  I  saw  at  least  our  Dash 
and  another  one." 

We  condemn  the  boy  for  exaggerating  in 
order  to  tell  a  wonderful  story;  but  how 
much  more  truthful  are  they  who  "  never 
saw  it  rain  so  before,"  or  who  call  day  after 


ENAMORED    OF    ACCURACY    273 

day  the  hottest  of  the  summer  or  the  coldest 
of  the  winter? 

There  is  nothing  which  all  mankind  vene- 
rate and  admire  so  much  as  simple  truth, 
exempt  from  artifice,  duplicity,  and  design. 
It  exhibits  at  once  a  strength  of  character 
and  integrity  of  purpose  in  which  all  are 
willing  to  confide. 

To  say  nice  things  merely  to  avoid  giving 
offense;  to  keep  silent  rather  than  speak  the 
truth;  to  equivocate,  to  evade,  to  dodge,  to 
say  what  is  expedient  rather  than  what  is 
truthful;  to  shirk  the  truth;  to  face  both 
ways;  to  exaggerate;  to  seem  to  concur  with 
another's  opinions  when  you  do  not;  to  de- 
ceive by  a  glance  of  the  eye,  a  nod  of  the 
head,  a  smile,  a  gesture;  to  lack  sincerity;  to 
assume  to  know  or  think  or  feel  what  you 
do  not — all  these  are  but  various  manifesta- 
tions of  hollowness  and  falsehood  resulting 
from  want  of  accuracy. 

We  find  no  lying,  no  inaccuracy,  no  slip- 
shod business  in  nature.  Roses  blossom  and 
crystals  form  with  the  same  precision  of  tint 
and  angle  to-day  as  in  Eden  on  the  morning 
of  creation.  The  rose  in  the  queen's  garden 
is  not  more  beautiful,  more  fragrant,  more 
exquisitely  perfect,  than  that  which  blooms 


274     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

and  blushes  unheeded  amid  the  fern-decked 
brush  by  the  roadside,  or  in  some  far-off 
glen  where  no  human  eye  ever  sees  it.  The 
crystal  found  deep  in  the  earth  is  constructed 
with  the  same  fidelity  as  that  formed  above 
ground.  Even  the  tiny  snowflake  whose  des- 
tiny is  to  become  an  apparently  insignificant 
and  a  wholly  unnoticed  part  of  an  enormous 
bank,  assumes  its  shape  of  ethereal  beauty  as 
faithfully  as  though  preparing  for  some  grand 
exhibition.  Planets  rush  with  dizzy  sweep 
through  almost  limitless  courses,  yet  return 
to  equinox  or  solstice  at  the  appointed  sec- 
ond, their  very  movement  being  "the  uni- 
form manifestation  of  the  will  of  God." 

The  marvelous  resources  and  growth  of 
America  have  developed  an  unfortunate  tend- 
ency to  overstate,  overdraw,  and  exaggerate. 
It  seems  strange  that  there  should  be  so 
strong  a  temptation  to  exaggerate  in  a  coun- 
try where  the  truth  is  more  wonderful  than 
fiction.  The  positive  is  stronger  than  the 
superlative,  but  we  ignore  this  fact  in  our 
speech.  Indeed,  it  is  really  difficult  to  ascer- 
tain the  exact  truth  in  America.  How  many 
American  fortunes  are  built  on  misrepresen- 
tation that  is  needless,  for  nothing  else  is  half 
so  strong  as  truth. 


ENAMORED    OF    ACCURACY    27$ 

"Does  the  devil  lie?"  was  asked  of  Sir 
Thomas  Browne.  "  No,  for  then  even  he 
could  not  exist."  Truth  is  necessary  to  per- 
manency. 

In  Siberia  a  traveler  found  men  who  could 
see  the  satellites  of  Jupiter  with  the  naked 
eye.  These  men  have  made  little  advance  in 
civilization,  yet  they  are  far  superior  to  us 
in  their  accuracy  of  vision.  It  is  a  curious 
fact  that  not  a  single  astronomical  discovery 
of  importance  has  been  made  through  a  large 
telescope,  the  men  who  have  advanced  our 
knowledge  of  that  science  the  most  work- 
ing with  ordinary  instruments  backed  by 
most  accurately  trained  minds  and  eyes. 

A  double  convex  lens  three  feet  in  diam- 
eter is  worth  $60,000.  Its  adjustment  is  so 
delicate  that  the  human  hand  is  the  only 
instrument  thus  far  known  suitable  for  giv- 
ing the  final  polish,  and  one  sweep  of  the 
hand  more  than  is  needed,  Alvan  Clark  says, 
would  impair  the  correctness  of  the  glass. 
During  the  test  of  the  great  glass  which  he 
made  for  Russia,  the  workmen  turned  it  a 
little  with  their  hands.  "Wait,  boys,  let  it 
cool  before  making  another  trial,"  said  Clark ; 
"the  poise  is  so  delicate  that  the  heat  from 
your  hands  affects  it." 


276    PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

Mr.  Clark's  love  of  accuracy  has  made  his 
name  a  synonym  of  exactness  the  world 
over. 

"No,  I  can't  do  it,  it  is  impossible,"  said 
Webster,  when  urged  to  speak  on  a  question 
soon  to  come  up,  toward  the  close  of  a  Con- 
gressional session.  "  I  am  so  pressed  with 
other  duties  that  I  haven't  time  to  prepare 
myself  to  speak  upon  that  theme."  "  Ah, 
but,  Mr.  Webster,  you  always  speak  well 
upon  any  subject.  You  never  fail."  "  But 
that's  the  very  reason,"  said  the  orator, 
"because  I  never  allow  myself  to  speak  upon 
any  subject  without  first  making  that  subject 
thoroughly  my  own.  I  haven't  time  to  do 
that  in  this  instance.  Hence  I  must  refuse." 

Rufus  Choate  would  plead  before  a  shoe- 
maker justice  of  the  peace  in  a  petty  case 
with  all  the  fervor  and  careful  attention  to 
detail  with  which  he  addressed  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court. 

"  Whatever  is  right  to  do,"  said  an  emi- 
nent writer,  "  should  be  done  with  our  best 
care,  strength,  and  faithfulness  of  purpose; 
we  have  no  scales  by  which  we  can  weigh 
our  faithfulness  to  duties,  or  determine  their 
relative  importance  in  God's  eyes.  That 
which  seems  a  trifle  to  us  may  be  the  secret 


ENAMORED    OF    ACCURACY    277 

spring  which  shall  move  the  issues  of  life 
and  death/' 

"  There  goes  a  man  that  has  been  in  hell," 
the  Florentines  would  say  when  Dante 
passed,  so  realistic  seemed  to  them  his  de- 
scription of  the  nether  world. 

"'There  is  only  one  real  failure  in  life 
possible,"  said  Canon  Farrar ;  "  and  that  is, 
not  to  be  true  to  the  best  one  knows." 

"  It  is  quite  astonishing,"  Grove  said  of 
Beethoven,  "to  find  the  length  of  time  dur- 
ing which  some  of  the  best  known  instru- 
mental melodies  remained  in  his  thoughts 
till  they  were  finally  used,  or  the  crude, 
vague,  commonplace  shape  in  which  they 
were  first  written  down.  The  more  they  are 
elaborated,  the  more  fresh  and  spontaneous 
they  become." 

Leonardo  da  Vinci  would  walk  across  Mi- 
Ian  to  change  a  single  tint  or  the  slightest 
detail  in  his  famous  picture  of  the  Last  Sup- 
per. "  Every  line  was  then  written  twice 
over  by  Pope,"  said  his  publisher  Dodsley, 
of  manuscript  brought  to  be  copied.  Gibbon 
wrote  his  memoir  nine  times,  and  the  first 
chapters  of  his  history  eighteen  times.  Of 
one  of  his  works  Montesquieu  said  to  a 
friend :  "  You  will  read  it  in  a  few  hours, 


278    PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

but  I  assure  you  it  has  cost  me  so  much 
labor  that  it  has  whitened  my  hair."  He  had 
made  it  his  study  by  day  and  his  dream  by 
night,  the  alpha  and  omega  of  his  aims  and 
objects.  "  He  who  does  not  write  as  well  as 
he  can  on  every  occasion,"  said  George 
Ripley,  "  will  soon  form  the  habit  of  not  writ- 
ing well  on  any  occasion." 

An  accomplished  entomologist  thought  he 
would  perfect  his  knowledge  by  a  few  les- 
sons under  Professor  Agassiz.  The  latter 
handed  him  a  dead  fish  and  told  him  to  use 
his  eyes.  Two  hours  later  he  examined  his 
new  pupil,  but  soon  remarked,  "  You  haven't 
really  looked  at  the  fish  yet.  You'll  have  to 
try  again."  After  a  second  examination  he 
shook  his  head,  saying,  "You  do  not  show 
that  you  can  use  your  eyes."  This  roused 
the  pupil  to  earnest  effort,  and  he  became  so 
interested  in  things  he  had  never  noticed 
before  that  he  did  not  see  Agassiz  when  he 
came  for  the  third  examination.  "That  will 
do,"  said  the  great  scientist.  "  I  now  see 
that  you  can  use  your  eyes." 

Reynolds  said  he  could  go  on  retouching  a 
picture  forever. 

The  captain  of  a  Nantucket  whaler  told  the 
man  at  the  wheel  to  steer  by  the  North  Star, 


ENAMORED    OF    ACCURACY    279 

but  was  awakened  towards  morning  by  a 
request  for  another  star  to  steer  by,  as  they 
had  "  sailed  by  the  other." 

Stephen  Girard  was  precision  itself.  He 
did  not  allow  those  in  his  employ  to  deviate 
in  the  slightest  degree  from  his  iron-clad 
orders.  He  believed  that  no  great  success 
is  possible  without  the  most  rigid  accuracy  in 
everything.  He  did  not  vary  from  a  promise 
in  the  slightest  degree.  People  knew  that  his 
word  was  not  "pretty  good,"  but  absolutely 
good.  He  left  nothing  to  chance.  Every  de- 
tail of  business  was  calculated  and  planned  to 
a  nicety.  He  was  as  exact  and  precise  even 
in  the  smallest  trifles  as  Napoleon ;  yet  his 
brother  merchants  attributed  his  superior  suc- 
cess to  good  luck. 

In  1805  Napoleon  broke  up  the  great  camp 
he  had  formed  on  the  shores  of  the  English 
Channel,  and  gave  orders  for  his  mighty  host 
to  defile  toward  the  Danube.  Vast  and  va- 
rious as  were  the  projects  fermenting  in  his 
brain,  however,  he  did  not  content  himself 
with  giving  the  order,  and  leaving  the  elabor- 
ation of  its  details  to  his  lieutenants.  To 
details  and  minutiae  which  inferior  captains 
would  have  deemed  too  microscopic  for  their 
notice,  he  gave  such  exhaustive  attention  that 


280     PUSHING   TO  THE   FRONT 

before  the  bugle  had  sounded  for  the  march 
he  had  planned  the  exact  route  which  every 
regiment  was  to  follow,  the  exact  day  and 
hour  it  was  to  leave  that  station,  and  the 
precise  moment  when  it  was  to  reach  its 
destination.  These  details,  so  thoroughly 
premeditated,  were  carried  out  to  the  letter, 
and  the  result  of  that  memorable  march  was 
the  victory  of  Austerlitz,  which  sealed  the 
fate  of  Europe  for  ten  years. 

When  a  noted  French  preacher  speaks  in 
Notre  Dame,  the  scholars  of  Paris  throng 
the  cathedral  to  hear  his  fascinating,  elo- 
quent, polished  discourses.  This  brilliant  fin- 
ish is  the  result  of  most  patient  work,  as  he 
delivers  but  five  or  six  sermons  a  year. 

When  Sir  Walter  Scott  visited  a  ruined 
castle  about  which  he  wished  to  write,  he 
wrote  in  a  notebook  the  separate  names  of 
grasses  and  wild  flowers  growing  near,  say- 
ing that  only 'by  such  means  can  a  writer  be 
natural. 

The  historian,  Macaulay,  never  allowed  a 
sentence  to  stand  until  it  was  as  good  as  he 
could  make  it. 

Besides  his  scrapbooks,  Garfield  had  a 
large  case  of  some  fifty  pigeonholes,  labeled 
"  Anecdotes,"  "  Electoral  Laws  and  Commis- 


ENAMORED    OF    ACCURACY    281 

French  Spoliation,"  "General  Poli- 
tics," "  Geneva  Award,"  "  Parliamentary  De- 
cisions," "Public  Men,"  "State  Politics," 
"  Tariff,"  *  The  Press,"  "  United  States  His- 
tory," etc.;  every  valuable  hint  he  could  get 
being  preserved  in  the  cold  exactness  of  black 
and  white.  When  he  chose  to  make  careful 
preparation  on  a  subject,  no  other  speaker 
could  command  so  great  an  array  of  facts. 
Accurate  people  are  methodical  people,  and 
method  means  character. 

"  Am  offered  10,000  bushels  wheat  on  your 
account  at  $1.00.  Shall  I  buy,  or  is  it  too 
high?"  telegraphed  a  San  Francisco  mer- 
chant to  one  in  Sacramento.  "  No  price  too 
high,"  came  back  over  the  wire  instead  of 
"No.  Price  too  high,"  as  was  intended. 
•The  omission  of  a  period  cost  the  Sacra- 
mento dealer  $1,000.  How  many  thousands 
have  lost  their  wealth  or  lives,  and  how  many 
frightful  accidents  have  occurred  through 
carelessness  in  sending  messages! 

"  The  accurate  boy  is  always  the  favored 
one,"  said  President  Tuttle.  "Those  who 
employ  men  do  not  wish  to  be  on  the  con- 
stant lookout,  as  though  they  were  rogues  or 
fools.  If  a  carpenter  must  stand  at  his 
journeyman's  elbow  to  be  sure  his  work  is 


282     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

right,  or  if  a  cashier  must  run  over  his  book- 
keeper's columns,  he  might  as  well  do  the 
work  himself  as  employ  another  to  do  it  in 
that  way;  and  it  is  very  certain  that  the 
employer  will  get  rid  of  such  a  blunderer  as 
soon  as  he  can." 

"  If  you  make  a  good  pin,"  said  a  success- 
ful manufacturer,  "you  will  earn  more  than 
if  you  make  a  bad  steam-engine." 

"  There  are  women,"  said  Fields,  "  whose 
stitches  always  come  out,  and  the  buttons 
they  sew  on  fly  off  on  the  mildest  provoca- 
tion; there  are  other  women  who  use  the 
same  needle  and  thread,  and  you  may  tug 
away  at  their  work  on  your  coat,  or  waist- 
coat, and  you  can't  start  a  button  in  a  gen- 
eration." 

"  Carelessness,"  "  indifference,"  "  slouchi- 
ness,"  "  slipshod  financiering,"  could  truth- 
fully be  written  over  the  graves  of  thou- 
sands who  have  failed  in  life.  How  many 
clerks,  cashiers,  clergymen,  editors,  and  pro- 
fessors in  colleges  have  lost  position  and 
prestige  by  carelessness  and  inaccuracy! 

"  You  would  be  the  greatest  man  of  your 
age,  Grattan,"  said  Curran,  "  if  you  would 
buy  a  few  yards  of  red  tape  and  tie  up  your 
bills  and  papers."  Curran  realized  that  meth- 


ENAMORED    OF    ACCURACY    283 

odical  people  are  accurate,  and,  as  a  rule, 
successful. 

Bergh  tells  of  a  man  beginning  business 
who  opened  and  shut  his  shop  regularly  at 
the  same  hour  every  day  for  weeks,  without 
selling  two  cents'  worth,  yet  whose  applica- 
tion attracted  attention  and  paved  the  way  to 
fortune. 

A.  T.  Stewart  was  extremely  systematic 
and  precise  in  all  his  transactions.  Method 
ruled  in  every  department  of  his  store,  and 
for  every  delinquency  a  penalty  was  rigidly 
enforced.  His  eye  was  upon  his  business  in 
all  its  ramifications;  he  mastered  every  detail 
and  worked  hard. 

From  the  time  Jonas  Chickering  began  to 
work  for  a  piano-maker,  he  was  noted  for  the 
pains  and  care  with  which  he  did  everything. 
To  him  there  were  no  trifles  in  the  manu- 
facturing of  pianos.  Neither  time  nor  labor 
was  of  any  account  to  him,  compared  with 
accuracy  and  knowledge.  He  soon  made 
pianos  in  a  factory  of  his  own.  He  deter- 
mined to  make  an  instrument  yielding  the 
fullest  and  richest  volume  of  melody  with 
the  least  exertion  to  the  player,  withstanding 
atmospheric  changes,  and  preserving  its  purity 
and  truthfulness  of  tone.  He  resolved  that 


284     PUSHING   TO  THE   FRONT 

each  piano  should  be  an  improvement  upon 
the  one  which  preceded  it ;  perfection  was  his 
aim.  To  the  end  of  his  life  he  gave  the  fin- 
ishing touch  to  each  of  his  instruments,  and 
would  trust  it  to  no  one  else.  He  permitted 
no  irregularity  in  workmanship  or  sales,  and 
was  characterized  by  simplicity,  transparency, 
and  staightforwardness. 

He  distanced  all  competitors.  Chickering's 
name  was  such  a  power  that  one  piano-maker 
had  his  name  changed  to  Chickering  by  the 
Massachusetts  legislature,  and  put  it  on  his 
pianos;  but  Jonas  Chickering  sent  a  petition 
to  the  legislature,  and  the  name  was  changed 
back.  Character  has  a  commercial  as  well 
as  an  ethical  value. 

Joseph  M.  W.  Turner  was  intended  by  his 
father  for  a  barber,  but  he  showed  such  a 
taste  for  drawing  that  a  reluctant  permission 
was  given  for  him  to  follow  art  as  a  profes- 
sion. He  soon  became  skilful,  but  as  he 
lacked  means  he  took  anything  to  do  that 
came  in  his  way,  frequently  illustrating 
guide-books  and  almanacs.  But  although  the 
pay  was  very  small  the  work  was  never  care- 
less. His  labor  was  worth  several  times  what 
he  received  for  it,  but  the  price  was  increased 
and  work  of  higher  grade  given  him  simply 


ENAMORED    OF    ACCURACY    285 

because  men  seek  the  services  of  those  who 
are  known  to  be  faithful,  and  employ  them 
in  as  lofty  work  as  they  seem  able  to  do. 
And  so  he  toiled  upward  until  be  began  to 
employ  himself,  his  work  sure  of  a  market 
at  some  price,  and  the  price  increasing  as 
other  men  began  to  get  glimpses  of  the 
transcendent  art  revealed  in  his  paintings,  an 
art  not  fully  comprehended  even  in  our  day. 
He  surpassed  the  acknowledged  masters  in 
various  fields  of  landscape  work,  and  left 
matchless  studies  of  natural  scenery  in  lines 
never  before  attempted.  What  Shakespeare 
is  in  literature,  Turner  is  in  his  special  field, 
the  greatest  name  on  record. 

The  demand  for  perfection  in  the  nature  of 
Wendell  Phillips  was  wonderful.  Every  word 
must  exactly  express  the  shade  of  his 
thought ;  every  phrase  must  be  of  due  length 
and  cadence;  every  sentence  must  be  per- 
fectly balanced  before  it  left  his  lips.  Exact 
precision  characterized  his  style.  He  was 
easily  the  first  forensic  orator  America  has 
produced.  The  rhythmical  fulness  and  poise 
of  his  periods  are  remarkable. 

Alexandre  Dumas  prepared  his  manuscript 
with  the  greatest  care.  When  consulted  by 
a  friend  whose  article  had  been  rejected  by 


286     PUSHING   TO  THE   FRONT 

several  publishers,  he  advised  him  to  have  it 
handsomely  copied  by  a  professional  penman, 
and  then  change  the  title.  The  advice  was 
taken,  and  the  article  eagerly  accepted  by  one 
of  the  very  publishers  who  had  refused  it 
before.  Many  able  essays  have  been  rejected 
because  of  poor  penmanship.  We  must  strive 
after  accuracy  as  we  would  after  wisdom,  or 
hidden  treasure,  or  anything  we  would  attain. 
Determine  to  form  exact  business  habits. 
Avoid  slipshod  financiering  as  you  would  the 
plague.  Careless  and  indifferent  habits  would 
soon  ruin  a  millionaire.  Nearly  every  very 
successful  man  is  accurate  and  painstaking. 
Accuracy  means  character,  and  character  is 
power. 


XIV.  THE  REWARD   OF   PERSIST- 
ENCE 

Every  noble  work  is  at  first  impossible.— CARLYLE. 

Victory  belongs  to  the  most  persevering.— NAPO- 
LEON. 

Success  in  most  things  depends  on  knowing  how 
long  it  takes  to  succeed.— MONTESQUIEU. 

Perpetual  pushing  and  assurance  put  a  difficulty 
out  of  countenance,  and  make  a  seeming  impossi- 
bility give  way.— JEREMY  COLLIER. 

"Unstable  as  water,  thou  shalt  not  excel." 

The  nerve  that  never  relaxes,  the  eye  that  never 
blanches,  the  thought  that  never  wanders, — these  are 
the  masters  of  victory. — BURKE. 

HE  pit  rose  at  me ! "  ex- 
claimed Edmund  Kean  in  a 
wild  tumult  of  emotion,  as 
he  rushed  home  to  his  trem- 
bling wife.  "  Mary,  you 
shall  ride  in  your  carriage 
yet,  and  Charles  shall  go  to  Eton ! "  He  had 
been  so  terribly  in  earnest  with  the  study  of 
his  profession  that  he  had  at  length  made  a 
mark  on  his  generation.  He  was  a  little  dark 
man  with  a  voice  naturally  harsh,  but  he  de- 
termined, when  young,  to  play  the  character  of 
Sir  Giles  Overreach,  in  Massinger's  drama,  as 
no  other  man  had  ever  played  it.  By  a  per- 
287 


288     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

sistency  that  nothing  seemed  able  to  daunt, 
he  so  trained  himself  to  play  the  'character 
that  his  success,  when  it  did  come,  was  over- 
whelming, and  all  London  was  at  his  feet. 

"  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  I  don't  think  this 
is  in  your  line,"  said  Woodfall  the  reporter, 
after  Sheridan  had  made  his  first  speech  in 
Parliament.  "  You  had  better  have  stuck  to 
your  former  pursuits."  With  head  on  his 
hand  Sheridan  mused  for  a  time,  then  looked 
up  and  said,  "  It  is  in  me,  and  it  shall  come 
out  of  me."  From  the  same  man  came  that 
harangue  against  Warren  Hastings  which  the 
orator  Fox  called  the  best  speech  ever  made 
in  the  House  of  Commons. 

"  I  had  no  other  books  than  heaven  and 
earth,  which  are  open  to  all,"  said  Bernard 
Palissy,  who  left  his  home  in  the  south  of 
France  in  1828,  at  the  age  of  eighteen. 
Though  only  a  glass-painter,  he  had  the  soul 
of  an  artist.  The  sight  of  an  elegant  Italian 
cup  disturbed  his  whole  existence  and  frorn 
that  moment  the  determination  to  discover 
the  enamel  with  which  it  was  glazed  possessed 
him  like  a  passion.  For  months  and  years 
he  tried  all  kinds  of  experiments  to  learn  the 
materials  of  which  the  enamel  .was  com- 
pounded. He  built  a  furnace,  which  was  a 


REWARD   OF   PERSISTENCE     289 

failure,  and  then  a  second,  burning  so  much 
wood,  spoiling  so  many  drugs  and  pots  of 
common  earthenware,  and  losing  so  much 
time,  that  poverty  stared  him  in  the  face, 
and  he  was  forced,  from  lack  of  ability  to 
buy  fuel,  to  try  his  experiments  in  a  common 
furnace.  Flat  failure  was  the  result,  but  he 
decided  on  the  spot  to  begin  all  over  again, 
and  soon  had  three  hundred  pieces  baking, 
one  of  which  came  out  covered  with  beauti- 
ful enamel. 

To  perfect  his  invention  he  next  built  a 
glass-furnace,  carrying  the  bricks  on  his 
back.  At  length  the  time  came  for  a  trial; 
but,  though  he  kept  the  heat  up  six  days,  his 
enamel  would  not  melt.  His  money  was  all 
gone,  but  he  borrowed  some,  and  bought 
more  pots  and  wood,  and  tried  to  get  a  better 
flux.  .When  next  he  lighted  his  fire,  he  at- 
tained no  result  until  his  fuel  was  gone. 
Tearing  off  the  palings  of  his  garden  fence, 
he  fed  them  to  the  flames,  but  in  vain.  His 
furniture  followed  to  no  purpose.  The 
shelves  of  his  pantry  were  then  broken  up 
and  thrown  into  the  furnace;  and  the  great 
burst  of  heat  melted  the  enamel.  The  grand 
secret  was  learned.  Persistence  had  tri- 
umphed again. 


2QO    PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

"  If  you  work  hard  two  weeks  without  sell- 
ing a  book,"  wrote  a  publisher  to  an  agent, 
"you  will  make  a  success  of  it." 

"  Know  thy  work  and  do  it,"  said  Carlyle ; 
"  and  work  at  it  like  a  Hercules." 

"  Whoever  is  resolved  to  excel  in  painting, 
or,  indeed,  in  any  other  art,"  said  Reynolds, 
"must  bring  all  his  mind  to  bear  upon  that 
one  object  from  the  moment  that  he  rises  till 
he  goes  to  bed." 

"  I  have  no  secret  but  hard  work,"  said 
Turner,  the  painter. 

"The  man  who  is  perpetually  hesitating 
which  of  two  things  he  will  do  first,"  said 
William  Wirt,  "  will  do  neither.  The  man  who 
resolves,  but  suffers  his  resolution  to  be 
changed  by  the  first  counter-suggestion  of  a 
friend — who  fluctuates  from  opinion  to  opin- 
ion, from  plan  to  plan,  and  veers  like  a 
weather-cock  to  every  point  of  the  compass, 
with  every  breath  of  caprice  that  blows, — 
can  never  accomplish  anything  great  or  use- 
ful. Instead  of  being  progressive  in  any- 
thing, he  will  be  at  best  stationary,  and,  more 
probably,  retrograde  in  all." 

Perseverance  built  the  pyramids  on  Egypt's 
plains,  erected  the  gorgeous  temple  at  Jeru- 
salem, inclosed  in  adamant  the  Chinese  Em* 


REWARD  OF  PERSISTENCE    291 

pire,  scaled  the  stormy,  cloud-capped  Alps, 
opened  a  highway  through  the  watery  wil- 
derness of  the  Atlantic,  leveled  the  forests  of 
the  new  world,  and  reared  in  its  stead  a  com- 
munity of  states  and  nations.  Perseverance 
has  wrought  from  the  marble  block  the  ex- 
quisite creations  of  genius,  painted  on  can- 
vas the  gorgeous  mimicry  of  nature,  and 
engraved  on  a  metallic  surface  the  viewless 
substance  of  the  shadow.  Perseverance  has 
put  in  motion  millions  of  spindles,  winged  as 
many  flying  shuttles,  harnessed  thousands  of 
iron  steeds  to  as  many  freighted  cars,  and  set 
them  flying  from  town  to  town  and  nation  to 
nation,  tunneled  mountains  of  granite,  and 
annihilated  space  with  the  lightning's  speed. 
It  has  whitened  the  waters  of  the  world  with 
the  sails  of  a  hundred  nations,  navigated  every 
sea  and  explored  every  land.  It  has  reduced 
nature  in  her  thousand  forms  to  as  many 
sciences,  taught  her  laws,  prophesied  her  fu- 
ture movements,  measured  her  untrodden 
spaces,  counted  her  myriad  hosts  of  worlds, 
and  computed  their  distances,  dimensions,  and 
velocities. 

The  slow  penny  is  surer  than  the  quick  dol- 
lar. The  slow  trotter  will  out-travel  the  fleet 
racer.  Genius  darts,  flutters,  and  tires;  but 


292     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

perseverance  wears  and  wins.  The  all-day 
horse  wins  the  race.  The  afternoon-man 
wears  off  the  laurels.  The  last  blow  drives 
home  the  nail. 

"  Are  your  discoveries  often  brilliant  intui- 
tions?" asked  a  reporter  of  Thomas  A.  Edi- 
son. "  Do  they  come  to  you  while  you  are 
lying  awake  nights?" 

"  I  never  did  anything  worth  doing  by  ac- 
cident," was  the  reply,  "  nor  did  any  of  my 
inventions  come  indirectly  through  accident, 
except  the  phonograph.  No,  when  I  have 
fully  decided  that  a  result  is  worth  getting  I 
go  ahead  on  it  and  make  trial  after  trial 
until  it  comes.  I  have  always  kept  strictly 
within  the  lines  of  commercially  useful  inven- 
tions. I  have  never  had  any  time  to  put  on 
electrical  wonders,  valuable  simply  as  novel- 
ties to  catch  the  popular  fancy.  /  like  it, " 
continued  the  great  inventor.  "  I  don't  krfow 
any  other  reason.  Anything  I  have  begun  is 
always  on  my  mind,  and  I  am  not  easy  while 
away  from  it  until  it  is  finished." 

A  man  who  thus  gives  himself  wholly  to 
his  work  is  certain  to  accomplish  something; 
and  if  he  have  ability  and  common  sense,  his 
success  will  be  great. 

How   Bulwer   wrestled  with   the   fates   to 


REWARD  OF  PERSISTENCE    293 

change  his  apparent  destiny !  His  first  novel 
was  a  failure ;  his  early  poems  were  failures ; 
and  his  youthful  speeches  provoked  the  ridi- 
cule of  his  opponents.  But  he  fought  his 
way  to  eminence  through  ridicule  and  de- 
feat. 

Gibbon  worked  twenty  years  on  his  "De- 
cline and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire."  Noaht 
Webster  spent  thirty-six  years  on  his  dic- 
tionary. What  a  sublime  patience  he  showed 
in  devoting  a  life  to  the  collection  and  defini- 
tion of  words !  George  Bancroft  spent  twen- 
ty-six years  on  his  "  History  of  the  United 
States."  Newton  rewrote  his  "  Chronology 
of  Ancient  Nations  "  fifteen  times.  Titian 
wrote  to  Charles  V. :  "I  send  your  majesty 
the  Last  Supper,  after  working  on  it  almost 
daily  for  seven  years."  He  worked  on  his 
Pietro  Martyn  eight  years.  George  Stephen- 
son  was  fifteen  years  perfecting  his  locomo- 
tive; Watt,  twenty  years  on  his  condensing 
engine.  Harvey  labored  eight  long  years  be- 
fore he  published  his  discovery  of  the  circu- 
lation of  the  blood.  He  was  then  called  a 
crack-brained  impostor  by  his  fellow  physi- 
cians. Amid  abuse  and  ridicule  he  waited 
twenty-five  years  before  his  great  discovery 
was  recognized  by  the  profession. 


294     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

Newton  discovered  the  law  of  gravitation 
before  he  was  twenty-one,  but  one  slight 
error  in  a  measurement  of  the  earth's  cir- 
cumference interfered  with  a  demonstration 
of  the  correctness  of  his  theory.  Twenty 
years  later  he  corrected  the  error,  and  showed 
that  the  planets  roll  in  their  orbits  as  a  result 
of  the  same  law  which  brings  an  apple  to 
the  ground. 

Sothern,  the  great  actor,  said  that  the  early 
part  of  his  theatrical  career  was  spent  in  get- 
ting dismissed  for  incompetency. 

"  Never  depend  upon  your  genius,"  said 
John  Ruskin,  in  the  words  of  Joshua  Rey- 
nolds ;  "  if  you  have  talent,  industry  will  im- 
prove it;  if  you  have  none,  industry  will 
supply  the  deficiency." 

Savages  believe  that  when  they  conquer  an 
enemy,  his  spirit  enters  into  them,  and  fights 
for  them  ever  afterwards.  So  the  spirit  of 
our  conquests  enters  us,  and  helps  us  to  win 
the  next  victory. 

Bliicher  may  have  been  routed  at  Ligny 
yesterday,  but  to-day  you  hear  the  thunder  of 
his  guns  at  Waterloo  hurling  dismay  and 
death  among  his  former  conquerors. 

Opposing  circumstances  create  strength. 
Opposition  gives  us  greater  power  of  resist- 


REWARD   OF   PERSISTENCE     295 

ance.  To  overcome  one  barrier  gives  us 
greater  ability  to  overcome  the  next. 

In  February,  1492,  a  poor  gray-haired  man, 
his  head  bowed  with  discouragement  almost 
to  the  back  of  his  mule,  rode  slowly  out 
through  the  beautiful  gateway  of  the  Alham- 
bra.  From  boyhood  he  had  been  haunted 
with  the  idea  that  the  earth  is  round.  He 
believed  that  the  piece  of  carved  wood  picked 
up  four  hundred  miles  at  sea  and  the  bodies 
of  two  men  unlike  any  other  human  beings 
known,  found  on  the  shores  of  Portugal,  had 
drifted  from  unknown  lands  in  the  west. 
But  his  last  hope  of  obtaining  aid  for  a  voy- 
age of  discovery  had  failed.  King  John  of 
Portugal,  while  pretending  to  think  of  help- 
ing him,  had  sent  out  secretly  an  expedition 
of  his  own. 

He  had  begged  bread,  drawn  maps  and 
charts  to  keep  from  starving;  he  had  lost  his 
wife;  his  friends  had  called  him  crazy,  and 
forsaken  him.  The  council  of  wise  men 
called  by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  ridiculed  his 
theory  of  reaching  the  east  by  sailing  west. 

"  But  the  sun  and  moon  are  round,"  said 
Columbus,  "why  not  the  earth?" 

"If  the  earth  is  a  ball,  what  holds  it  up?" 
asked  the  wise  men. 


296     PUSHING   TO  THE   FRONT 

"What  holds  the  sun  and  moon  up?"  in- 
quired Columbus. 

"  But  how  can  men  walk  with  their  heads 
hanging  down,  and  their  feet  up,  like  flies  on 
a  ceiling?"  asked  a  learned  doctor;  "how 
can  trees  grow  with  their  roots  in  the  air  ?  " 

"  The  water  would  run  out  of  the  ponds 
and  we  should  fall  off,"  said  another  philos- 
opher. 

"This  doctrine  is  contrary  to  the  Bible, 
which  says,  *  The  heavens  are  stretched  out 
like  a  tent:' — of  course  it  is  flat;  it  is  rank 
heresy  to  say  it  is  round,"  said  a  priest. 

Columbus  left  the  Alhambra  in  despair, 
intending  to  offer  his  services  to  Charles  VII., 
but  he  heard  a  voice  calling  his  name.  An 
old  friend  had  told  Isabella  that  it  would 
add  great  renown  to  her  reign  at  a  trifling 
expense  if  what  the  sailor  believed  should 
prove  true.  "  It  shall  be  done,"  said  Isabella, 
"  I  will  pledge  my  jewels  to  raise  the  money. 
Call  him  back." 

Columbus  turned  and  with  him  turned  the 
world.  Not  a  sailor  would  go  voluntarily ;  so 
the  king  and  queen  compelled  them.  Three 
days  out,  in  his  vessels  scarcely  larger  than 
fishing-schooners,  the  Pinta  floated  a  signal 
of  distress  for  a  broken  rudder.  Terror 


REWARD   OF   PERSISTENCE    297 

seized  the  sailors,  but  Columbus  calmed  their 
fears  with  pictures  of  gold  and  precious 
stones  from  India.  Two  hundred  miles  west 
of  the  Canaries,  the  compass  ceased  to  point 
to  the  North  Star.  The  sailors  are  ready  to 
mutiny,  but  he  tells  them  the  North  Star  is 
not  exactly  north.  Twenty-three  hundred 
miles  from  home,  though  he  tells  them  it  is 
but  seventeen  hundred,  a  bush  with  berries 
floats  by,  land  birds  fly  near,  and  they  pick 
up  a  piece  of  wood  curiously  carved.  On 
October  12,  Columbus  raised  the  banner  of 
Castile  over  the  western  world. 

"  How  hard  I  worked  at  that  tremendous 
shorthand,  and  all  improvement  appertaining 
to  it,"  said  Dickens.  "I  will  only  add  to 
what  I  have  already  written  of  my  perse- 
verance at  this  time  of  my  life,  and  of  a  pa- 
tient and  continuous  energy  which  then  began 
to  be  matured." 

Cyrus  W.  Field  had  retired  from  business 
with  a  large  fortune  when  he  became  pos- 
sessed with  the  idea  that  by  means  of  a  cable 
laid  upon  the  bottom  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean, 
telegraphic  communication  could  be  estab- 
lished between  Europe  and  America.  He 
plunged  into  the  undertaking  with  all  the 
force  of  his  being.  The  preliminary  work 


298    PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

included  the  construction  of  a  telegraph  line 
one  thousand  miles  long,  from  New  York 
to  St.  John's,  Newfoundland.  Through  four 
hundred  miles  of  almost  unbroken  forest 
they  had  to  build  a  road  as  well  as  a  tele- 
graph line  across  Newfoundland.  Another 
stretch  of  one  hundred  and  forty  miles  across 
the  island  of  Cape  Breton  involved  a  great 
deal  of  labor,  as  did  the  laying  of  a  cable 
across  the  St.  Lawrence. 

By  hard  work  he  secured  aid  for  his  com- 
pany from  the  British  government,  but  in 
Congress  he  encountered  such  bitter  opposi- 
tion from  a  powerful  lobby  that  his  measure 
only  had  a  majority  of  one  in  the  Senate. 
The  cable  was  loaded  upon  the  Agamemnon, 
the  flagship  of  the  British  fleet  at  Sebastopol, 
and  upon  the  Niagara,  a  magnificent  new 
frigate  of  the  United  States  Navy ;  but,  when 
five  miles  of  cable  had  been  paid  out,  it 
caught  in  the  machinery  and  parted.  On  the 
second  trial,  when  two  hundred  miles  at  sea, 
the  electric  current  was  suddenly  lost,  and 
men  paced  the  decks  nervously  and  sadly, 
as  if  in  the  presence  of  death.  Just  as  Mr. 
Field  was  about  to  give  the  order  to  cut  the 
cable,  the  current  returned  as  quickly  and 
mysteriously  as  it  had  disappeared.  The  fol- 


REWARD   OF   PERSISTENCE     299 

lowing  night,  when  the  ship  was  moving  but 
four  miles  an  hour  and  the  cable  running  out 
at  the  rate  of  six  miles,  the  brakes  were  ap- 
plied too  suddenly  just  as  the  steamer  gave  a 
heavy  lurch,  breaking  the  cable. 

Field  was  not  the  man  to  give  up.  Seven 
hundred  miles  more  of  cable  were  ordered, 
and  a  man  of  great  skill  was  set  to  work  to  de- 
vise a  better  machine  for  paying  out  the  long 
line.  American  and  British  inventors  united 
in  making  a  machine.  At  length  in  mid- 
ocean  the  two  halves  of  the  cable  were  spliced 
and  the  steamers  began  to  separate,  the  one 
headed  for  Ireland,  the  other  for  Newfound- 
land, each  running  out  the  precious  thread, 
which,  it  was  hoped,  would  bind  two  conti- 
nents together.  Before  the  vessels  were 
three  miles  apart,  the  cable  parted.  Again  it 
was  spliced,  but  when  the  ships  were  eighty 
miles  apart,  the  current  was  lost.  A  third 
time  the  cable  was  spliced  and  about  two 
hundred  miles  paid  out,  when  it  parted  some 
twenty  feet  from  the  Agamemnon,  and  the 
vessels  returned  to  the  coast  of  Ireland. 

Directors  were  disheartened,  the  public 
skeptical,  capitalists  were  shy,  and  but  for  the 
indomitable  energy  and  persuasiveness  of  Mr. 
Field,  who  worked  day  and  night  almost 


300     PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

without  food  or  sleep,  the  whole  project 
would  have  been  abandoned.  Finally  a  third 
attempt  was  made,  with  such  success  that 
the  whole  cable  was  laid  without  a  break,  and 
several  messages  were  flashed  through  nearly 
seven  hundred  leagues  of  ocean,  when  sud- 
denly the  current  ceased. 

Faith  now  seemed  dead  except  in  the  breast 
of  Cyrus  W.  Field,  and  one  or  two  friends, 
yet  with  such  persistence  did  they  work  that 
they  persuaded  men  to  furnish  capital  for  yet 
another  trial  even  against  what  seemed  their 
better  judgment.  A  new  and  superior  cable 
was  loaded  upon  the  Great  Eastern,  which 
steamed  slowly  out  to  sea,  paying  out  as  she 
advanced.  Everything  worked  to  a  charm 
until  within  six  hundred  miles  of  Newfound- 
land, when  the  cable  snapped  and  sank. 
After  several  attempts  to  raise  it,  the  enter- 
prise was  abandoned  for  a  year. 

Not  discouraged  by  all  these  difficulties, 
Mr.  Field  went  to  work  with  a  will,  organized 
a  new  company,  and  made  a  new  cable  far 
superior  to  anything  before  used,  and  on  July 
13,  1866,  was  begun  the  trial  which  ended 
with  the  following  message  sent  to  New 
York:— 


REWARD   OF   PERSISTENCE     301 

"HEART'S  CONTENT,  July  27. 
"We    arrived    here    at    nine    o'clock    this 
morning.     All  well.     Thank  God!  the  cable 
is  laid  and  is  in  perfect  working  order. 

"  CYRUS  W.  FIELD." 

The  old  cable  was  picked  up,  spliced,  and 
continued  to  Newfoundland,  and  the  two  are 
still  working,  with  good  prospects  for  use- 
fulness for  many  years. 

In  Revelation  we  read:  "He  that  over- 
cometh,  I  will  give  him  to  sit  down  with  me 
on  my  throne." 

Successful  men,  it  is  said,  owe  more  to 
their  perseverance  than  to  their  natural  pow- 
ers, their  friends,  or  the  favorable  circum- 
stances around  them.  Genius  will  falter  by 
the  side  of  labor,  great  powers  will  yield  to 
great  industry.  Talent  is  desirable,  but  per- 
severance is  more  so. 

"  How  long  did  it  take  you  to  learn  to 
play?"  asked  a  young  man  of  Geradini. 
"  Twelve  hours  a  day  for  twenty  years,"  re- 
plied the  great  violinist.  Lyman  Beecher 
when  asked  how  long  it  took  him  to  write 
his  celebrated  sermon  on  the  "  Government 
of  God,"  replied,  "  About  forty  years." 


302     PUSHING   TO  THE   FRONT 

A  Chinese  student,  discouraged  by  re- 
peated failures,  had  thrown  away  his  book  in 
despair,  when  he  saw  a  poor  woman  rubbing 
an  iron  bar  on  a  stone  to  make  a  needle. 
This  example  of  patience  sent  him  back  to 
his  studies  with  a  new  determination,  and  he 
became  one  of  the  three  greatest  scholars  of 
China. 

Malibran  said:  "If  I  neglect  my  practise 
a  day,  I  see  the  difference  in  my  execution; 
if  for  two  days,  my  friends  see  it;  and  if  for 
a  week,  all  the  world  knows  my  failure." 
Constant,  persistent  struggle  she  found  to  be 
the  price  of  her  marvelous  power. 

When  an  East  India  boy  is  learning  arch- 
ery, he  is  compelled  to  practise  three  months 
drawing  the  string  to  his  ear  before  he  is 
allowed  to  touch  an  arrow. 

Benjamin  Franklin  had  this  tenacity  of 
purpose  in  a  wonderful  degree.  When  he 
started  in  the  printing  business  in  Philadel- 
phia, he  carried  his  material  through  the 
streets  on  a  wheelbarrow.  He  hired  one 
room  for  his  office,  work-room,  and  sleeping- 
room.  He  found  a  formidable  rival  in  the 
city  and  invited  him  to  his  room.  Pointing 
to  a  piece  of  bread  from  which  he  had  just 
eaten  his  dinner,  he  said :  "  Unless  you  can 


REWARD   OF   PERSISTENCE    303 

live  cheaper  than  I  can  you  cannot  starve  me 
out." 

All  are  familiar  with  the  misfortune  of 
Carlyle  while  writing  his  "  History  of  the 
French  Revolution."  After  the  first  volume 
was  ready  for  the  press,  he  loaned  the  manu- 
script to  a  neighbor  who  left  it  lying  on  the 
floor,  and  the  servant  girl  took  it  to  kindle 
the  fire.  It  was  a  bitter  disappointment,  but 
Carlyle  was  not  the  man  to  give  up.  After 
many  months  of  poring  over  hundreds  of  vol- 
umes of  authorities  and  scores  of  manu- 
scripts, he  reproduced  that  which  had  burned1 
in  a  few  minutes. 

Audubon,  the  naturalist,  had  spent  two 
years  with  his  gun  and  note-book  in  the  for- 
ests of  America,  making  drawings  of  birds. 
He  nailed  them  all  up  securely  in  a  box  and 
went  off  on  a  vacation.  When  he  returned 
he  opened  the  box  only  to  find  a  nest  of  Nor- 
wegian rats  in  his  beautiful  drawings. 
Every  one  was  ruined.  It  was  a  terrible  dis- 
appointment, but  Audubon  took  his  gun  and 
note-book  and  started  for  the  forest.  He  re- 
produced his  drawings,  and  they  were  even 
better  than  the  first. 

When  Dickens  was  asked  to  read  one  of 
his  selections  in  public  he  replied  that  he  had 


304    PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

not  time,  for  he  was  in  the  habit  of  reading 
the  same  piece  every  day  for  six  months  be- 
fore reading  it  in  public.  "  My  own  inven- 
tion," he  says,  "  such  as  it  is,  I  assure  you, 
would  never  have  served  me  as  it  has  but  for 
the  habit  of  commonplace,  humble,  patient, 
toiling  attention." 

Addison  amassed  three  volumes  of  manu- 
script before  he  began  the  "  Spectator." 

Every  one  admires  a  determined,  persist- 
ent man.  Marcus  Morton  ran  sixteen  times 
for  governor  of  Massachusetts.  At  last  his 
opponents  voted  for  him  from  admiration  of 
his  pluck,  and  he  was  elected  by  a  majority 
of  one!  Such  persistence  always  triumphs. 

Webster  declared  that  when  a  pupil  at 
Phillips  Exeter  Academy  he  never  could  de- 
claim before  the  school.  He  said  he  com- 
mitted piece  after  piece  and  rehearsed  them 
in  his  room,  but  when  he  heard  his  name 
called  in  the  academy  and  all  eyes  turned  to- 
wards him  the  room  became  dark  and  every- 
thing he  ever  knew  fled  from  his  brain;  but 
he  became  the  great  orator  of  America.  In- 
deed, it  is  doubtful  whether  Demosthenes  him- 
self surpassed  his  great  reply  to  Hayne  in  the 
United  States  Senate.  Webster's  tenacity 
was  illustrated  by  a  circumstance  which  oc- 


REWARD   OF   PERSISTENCE     305 

curred  in  the  academy.  The  principal  pun- 
ished him  for  shooting  pigeons  by  compelling 
him  to  commit  ohe  hundred  lines  of  Vergil. 
He  knew  the  principal  was  to  take  a  certain 
train  that  afternoon,  so  he  went  to  his  room 
and  learned  seven  hundred  lines.  He  went  to 
recite  them  to  the  principal  just  before  train 
time.  After  repeating  the  hundred  lines  he 
continued  until  he  had  recited  two  hundred. 
The  principal  anxiously  looked  at  his  watch 
and  grew  nervous,  but  Webster  kept  right 
on.  The  principal  finally  stopped  him  and 
asked  him  how  many  more  he  had  learned. 
"About  five  hundred  more,"  said  Webster, 
continuing  to  recite. 

"  You  can  have  the  rest  of  the  day  for 
pigeon-shooting,"  said  the  principal. 

GreaC  writers  have  ever  been  noted  for 
their  tenacity  of  purpose.  Their  works  have 
not  been  flung  off  from  minds  aglow  with 
genius,  but  have  been  elaborated  and  elabo- 
rated into  grace  and  beauty,  until  every  trace 
of  their  efforts  has  been  obliterated. 

Bishop  Butler  worked  twenty  years  inces- 
santly on  his  "  Analogy,"  and  even  then  was 
so  dissatisfied  that  he  wanted  to  burn  it. 
Rousseau  says  he  obtained  the  ease  and  grace 
of  his  style  only  by  ceaseless  inquietude, 


306     PUSHING   TO  THE   FRONT 

by  endless  blotches  and  erasures.  Vergil 
worked  eleven  years  on  the  ^Eneid.  The 
note-books  of  great  men  like  Hawthorne  and 
Emerson  are  tell-tales  of  the  enormous 
drudgery,  of  the  years  put  into  a  book  which 
may  be  read  in  an  hour.  Montesquieu  was 
twenty-five  years  writing  his  "  Esprit  des 
Lois,"  yet  you  can  read  it  in  sixty  minutes. 
Adam  Smith  spent  ten  years  on  his  "  Wealth 
of  Nations."  A  rival  playwright  once 
laughed  at  Euripides  for  spending  three  days 
on  three  lines,  when  he  had  written  five  hun- 
dred lines.  "But  your  five  hundred  lines  in 
three  days  will  be  dead  and  forgotten,  while 
my  three  lines  will  live  forever,"  he  replied. 
Ariosto  wrote  his  "  Description  of  a  Tem- 
pest "  in  sixteen  different  ways.  He  spent  ten 
years  on  his  "  Orlando  Furioso,"  and  only 
sold  one  hundred  copies  at  fifteen  pence  each. 
The  proof  of  Burke's  "Letters  to  a  Noble 
Lord "  (one  of  the  sublimest  things  in  all 
literature)  went  back  to  the  publisher  so 
changed  and  blotted  with  corrections  that  the 
printer  absolutely  refused  to  correct  it,  and 
it  was  entirely  reset.  Adam  Tucker  spent 
eighteen  years  on  the  "  Light  of  Nature." 
Thoreau's  New  England  pastoral,  "A  Week 
on  the  Concord  and  Merrimac  Rivers,"  was 


REWARD   OF   PERSISTENCE     307 

an  entire  failure.  Seven  hundred  of  the  one 
thousand  copies  printed  were  returned  from 
the  publishers.  Thoreau  wrote  in  his  diary: 
"  I  have  some  nine  hundred  volumes  in  my 
library,  seven  hundred  of  which  I  wrote  my- 
self." Yet  he  took  up  his  pen  with  as  much 
determination  as  ever. 

The  rolling  stone  gathers  no  moss.  The 
persistent  tortoise  outruns  the  swift  but 
fickle  hare.  An  hour  a  day  for  twelve  years 
more  than  equals  the  time  given  to  study  in 
a  four  years'  course  at  a  high  school.  The 
reading  and  re-reading  of  a  single  volume 
has  been  the  making  of  many  a  man.  "  Pa- 
tience," says  Bulwer,  "  is  the  courage  of  the 
conqueror;  it  is  the  virtue  par  excellence,  of 
Man  against  Destiny — of  the  One  against 
the  World,  and  of  the  Soul  against  Matter. 
Therefore,  this  is  the  courage  of  the  Gospel ; 
and  its  importance  in  a  social  view — its  im- 
portance to  races  and  institutions — cannot  be 
too  earnestly  inculcated/' 

Want  of  constancy  is  the  cause  of  many  a 
failure,  making  the  millionaire  of  to-day  a 
beggar  to-morrow.  Show  me  a  really  great 
triumph  that  is  not  the  reward  of  persistence. 
One  of  the  paintings  which  made  Titian 
famous  was  on  his  easel  eight  years ;  another, 


3o8    PUSHING   TO  THE  FRONT 

seven.  How  came  popular  writers  famous? 
By  writing  for  years  without  any  pay  at  all; 
by  writing  hundreds  of  pages  as  mere  prao 
tise-work;  by  working  like  galley-slaves  at 
literature  for  half  a  lifetime  with  no  other 
compensation  than — fame. 

"Never  despair,"  says  Burke;  "but  if  you 
tto,  work  on  in  despair." 

The  head  of  the  god  Hercules  is  repre- 
sented as  covered  with  a  lion's  skin  with 
claws  joined  under  the  chin,  to  show  that 
when  we  have  conquered  our  misfortunes, 
they  become  our  helpers.  Oh,  the  glory  of  an 
unconquerable  will! 


XV.   BE   BRIEF 

I  saw  one  excellency  was  within  my  reach — it  was 
brevity,  and  I  determined  to  obtain  it. — JAY. 

Brevity   is   the   best    recommendation    of   speech, 
whether  in  a  senator  or  an  orator. — CICERO. 

Words  are  like  leaves,  and  where  they  most 

abound, 

Much  fruit  of  sense  beneath  is  rarely  found. 

POPE. 

"Brevity  is  the  soul  of  wit/' 

The   fewer  the  words,   the  better  the  prayer— 
LUTHER. 

Be  comprehensive  in  all  you  say  or  write.— JOHN 
NEAL, 

Brevity  is  very  good 

When  we  are,  or  are  not,  understood. 

BUTLER. 

Concentration  alone  conquers. — CHAS.  BUXTON. 

E  brief.  Come  to  the  point. 
Begin  very  near  where  you 
mean  to  leave  off.  Brevity^ 
is  the  soul  of  wisdom  as  well' 
as  of  wit.  Gems  are  not 
reckoned  by  gross  weight.' 
The  common  air  we  'beat  aside  with  our 
breath,  compressed,  has  the  force  of  gun- 
powder, and  will  rend  the  solid  rock.  A 
gentle  stream  of  persuasiveness  may  flow 
through  the  mind,  and  leave  no  sediment :  but 
309 


3io     PUSHING   TO   THE   FRONT 

let  it  come  at  a  blow,  as  a  cataract,  and  it 
sweeps  all  before  it.  Mere  words  are  cheap 
and  plenty  enough;  but  ideas  that  rouse  and 
set  multitudes  thinking  come  as  gold  from 
the  mine. 

The  leaden  bullet  is  more  fatal  than  when 
multiplied  into  shot.  If  you  want  to  do  sub- 
stantial work,  concentrate;  and  if  you  wish 
to  give  others  the  benefit  of  your  work,  con- 
dense. Rufus  Choate  would  express  in  a 
minute's  conversation  what  his  contemporaries 
would  require  an  hour  to  state  clearly. 

While  Horace  Greeley  would  devote  a  col- 
umn of  the  "  New  York  Tribune  "  to  an  ar- 
ticle, Thurlow  Weed  would  treat  the  same 
subject  in  a  few  words  in  the  "Albany 
Evening  Journal,"  and  put  the  argument  into 
such  shape  as  to  carry  far  more  conviction. 

"  Be  brief,"  Cyrus  W.  Field  would  say  to 
callers;  "time  is  very  valuable.  Punctual- 
ity, honesty,  and  brevity  are  the  watchwords 
of  life.  Never  write  a  long  letter.  A  busi- 
ness man  has  not  time  to  read  it.  If  you 
have  anything  to  say,  be  brief.  There  is  no 
business  so  important  that  it  can't  be  told  on 
one  sheet  of  paper.  Years  ago,  when  I  was 
laying  the  Atlantic  cable,  I  had  occasion  to 
send  a  very  important  letter  to  England.  I 


BE  BRIEF  311 

knew  it  would  have  to  be  read  by  the  prime 
minister  and  by  the  queen.  I  wrote  out  what 
I  had  to  say;  it  covered  several  sheets  of 
paper ;  then  I  went  over  it  twenty  times,  elim- 
inating words  here  and  there,  making  sen- 
tences briefer,  until  finally  I  got  all  I  had  to 
say  on  one  sheet  of  paper.  Then  I  mailed  it. 
In  due  time  I  received  the  answer.  It  was 
a  satisfactory  one,  too;  but  do  you  think  I 
would  have  fared  so  well  if  my  letter  had 
covered  half  a  dozen  sheets?  No,  indeed. 
Brevity  is  a  rare  gift." 

"  Call  upon  a  business  man  in  business 
hours.  State  your  business  in  a  business 
way;  and,  when  done  with  business  matters, 
go  about  your  business,  and  leave  the  busi- 
ness man  to  attend  to  his  business." 

A.  T.  Stewart  regarded  his  time  as  his  cap- 
ital. No  one  was  admitted  to  his  private  of- 
fice until  he  had  stated  his  business  to  a  sen- 
tinel at  an  outer  door,  and  then  to  another 
near  the  office.  If  the  visitor  pleaded  pri- 
vate business,  the  sentinel  would  say,  "  Mr. 
Stewart  has  no  private  business."  When  ad- 
mittance was  gained  one  had  to  be  brief. 
The  business  of  Stewart's  great  establishment 
was  dispatched  with  a  system  and  prompti- 
tude which  surprised  rival  merchants.  There 


312     PUSHING   TO  THE   FRONT 

was  no  dawdling  or  dallying  or  fooling,  but 
"  business  "  was  the  watchword  from  morn- 
ing until  night.  He  refused  to  be  drawn  into 
friendly  conversation  during  business  hours. 
He  had  not  a  moment  to  waste. 

"  Genuine  good  taste,"  says  Fenelon,  "  con- 
sists in  saying  much  in  a  few  words,  in  choos- 
ing among  our  thoughts,  in  having  order  and 
^arrangement  in  what  we  say,  and  in  speak- 
ing with  composure/' 

"  If  you  would  be  pungent,"  says  Southey, 
"be  brief;  for  it  is  with  words  as  with  sun- 
beams— the  more  they  are  condensed,  the 
deeper  they  burn." 

•  "  When  one  has  no  design  but  to  speak 
plain  truth,"  says  Steele,  "  he  may  say  a  great 
deal  in  a  very  narrow  compass." 

The  fame  of  the  Seven  Wise  Men  of  Greece 
rested  largely  upon  a  single  sentence  by 
each  of  only  two  or  three  words. 

"  The  wisdom  of  nations  lies  in  their 
proverbs." 

"  Have  something  to  say,"  says  Tyron  Ed- 
wards ;  "  say  it,  and  stop  when  you've  done." 


OPINIONS  OF 

l©oman  anb  J 


Like  the  previous  works  of  Dr.  Marden,  this 
book  is  one  destined  to  be  of  much  value  in 
inspiring  our  young  people  to  higher  and  better 
efforts.  His  previous  works  have  done  a  vast 
amount  of  good,  and  I  am  certain  that  every 
young  woman  who  reads  the  new  work  will  find 
in  it  much  of  helpfulness. 

Ex-Governor  of  Massachusetts  John  L.  Bates. 

It  is  just  the  thing  we  need,  and  I  am  glad  that 
you  have  been  the  one  to  write  it.  You  know 
how  I  appreciate  your  books  and  the  great  value 
I  set  upon  them. 

Positively  I  do  not  know  of  the  writings  of  any 
other  man  in  America  that  I  would  rather  have 
in  the  hands  of  the  young  men  of  this  nation. 

Judge  Benj.  B.  Lindsey,  Juvenile  Court, 
Denver,  Colorado. 

Dr.  Marden  is  not  a  fanatic,  but  a  safe,  sane 
tnd  practical  writer  of  everyday  problems.  He 
presents  this  subject  in  a  broad,  simple  way  that 
carries  conviction  to  his  readers.  It  is  not  an 
appeal  to  either  the  married  or  the  unmarried,  the 
suffragist  or  the  anti-suffragist,  but  to  all  humanity. 
Of  course  men  and  women  will  discuss  the  book 
from  their  point  of  view,  for  all  will  not  agree 
with  him,  but  all  will  agree  that  it  is  an  interest- 
ing book  and  worth  reading. 

The  Constitution  (Atlanta,  Ga.) 

The  best  thing  the  author  has  done. 

Bookseller,  Newsdealer  and  Stationer. 


I2mo,  cloth,  $1.25  net.    By  mail,  $1.37. 


THOMAS    Y.    CROWELL    COMPANY 


OPINIONS   OF 

Jopg  of 


In  Every  Sense  Worth  While 

"A  ringing  call  for  a  joyful  life  is  just  what 
this  old  world  needs  to  hear  and  to  heed.  A 
saner,  wiser,  more  helpful  book  than  this  we 
have  rarely  read.  ...  In  every  sense  well 
worth  the  while."  The  Examiner. 

Wholesome  Reading 

"The  book  makes  wholesome  reading.  One 
lays  it  down  with  a  resolve  to  find  more  happi- 
ness in  his  life  and  a  determination  to  live  more 
in  the  present."  Springfield  Republican. 

One  of  the  Author's  Best 

"The  author  has  been  doing  uniformly  good 
work,  work  that  has  elicited  warmest  commen- 
dations from  leading  men  of  the  country.  'The 
Joys  of  Living'  is  one  of  Dr.  Marden's  best 
books."  Chicago  Standard. 

More  Such  Teachers  Wanted 

"Give  us  more  such  teachers  and  writers,  more 
such  heralds  of  the  new  and  ever  present  king- 
dom of  Good,  of  Joy,  of  Opulence!  Just  read 
this  book  yourself  and  you  will  change  your 
whole  mental  attitude."  The  Truth-Seeker. 

A  Book  for  the  Nerve-worn 

"The  book  is  one  that  our  rushing  American 
world  needs.  If  you  feel  compassion  for  any 
nerve-worn,  unhappy  man  or  woman,  tell  them 
of  this  message.  Better  still,  send  the  book  to 
some  one  who  needs  it."  Portland  Oregouian. 


izmo,  cloth,  $1.25  net.     By  mail,  $1.37. 


THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  COMPANY 


OPINIONS    OF 

for  OKficiencp 


Practical  Ideas 

"Dr.  Harden  has  practical  ideas,  and  the  sug- 
gestions made  are  good."  Providence  Journal. 

Something  for  Every  One 

"There  is  something  here  for  every  one.  The 
author  goes  to  bed-rock  principles  that  may  apply 
in  the  lives  of  all.  The  book  should  be  circu- 
lated widely."  Milwaukee  Journal. 

Radiates  Optimism 

"The  very  chapter  topics  radiate  optimism. 
Every  theory  enunciated  is  practical,  and  the  au- 
thor's views  of  life  deserve  to  be  highly  com- 
mended." Christian  Endeavor  World. 

Sure  to  Appeal 

"The  advice  given  is  sound,  homely,  but  sure 
to  appeal.  Dr.  Harden  and  his  publishers  have 
contributed  a  notable  service  in  issuing  this 
book."  Trenton  Sunday  Times. 

Standard  Literature 

"The  chapters  constitute  standard  literature  on 
the  subjects  discussed.  No  better  book  for  the 
efficiency  student  is  to  be  obtained." 

Railroad  Men. 

For  Young  and  Old 

"Exceedingly  practical  and  highly  inspirational. 
Young  and  old  will  read  it  with  equal  profit  and 
pleasure."  Christian  Advocate. 


ismo,  cloth,  $1.25  net.     By  mail,  $1.37. 


THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  COMPANY 


OPINIONS   OF 

Cfje  Exceptional  O&nplopee 


Uplifting  to  Humanity 

"I  assure  you  that  the  present  and  future  gen- 
erations must  look  upon  such  a  work  as  most 
uplifting  to  humanity." 

CHARLES  FRANCIS,    Charles  Francis  Press, 
New   York   City. 

Fresh  Efforts  after  Reading 

"No  one  will  fail  to  put  forth  fresh  and  better 
directed  efforts  to  work  to  the  front  after  read- 
ing the  book."  Good  Health. 

The  Ladder  of  Success 

"The  author  writes  with  a  purpose  in  view; 
that  purpose  is  found  on  the  topmost  rungs  of 
the  ladder  of  success.  In  order  to  find  the  pur- 
pose the  reader  must  ascend  this  ladder.  The 
rest  is  easy." 
Chamber  of  Commerce  Bulletin  (Portland,  Ore.). 

A  Wise  Investment 

"Any  one  who  employs  labor  where  it  requires 
character  and  intelligence  would  make  a  wise  in- 
vestment by  presenting  his  employees  a  copy  of 
this  book.  It  has  been  some  time  since  I  have 
read  a  more  wholesome,  inspiring,  and  fascinating 
volume."  J.  J.  COLE,  in  Christian  Standard. 

Brimful  of  Anecdote  and  Illustration 

"The  book  is  not  all  theory  and  principle.  It 
is  brimful  of  the  anecdote  and  illustration  from 
actual  business  life  which  gives  vigor  and  ac- 
ceptance to  the  writer's  ideas." 

Christian   Advocate. 


i2mo,  cloth,  $1.00  net.     By  mail,  $T.IO. 


THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  COMPANY 


OPINIONS    OF   THE 


Sound,  Practical  Suggestions 

"Contains  a  lot  of  sound,  practical  suggestions 
worth  considering  by  those  responsible  for  the 
conduct  of  business  enterprises." 

New  York  Times. 

Good  Business  Advice 

"One  of  the  best  books  of  business  advice  ever 
published."  Albany  Argus. 

Worthy  of  High  Commendation 

"A  book  that  contains  such  valuable  informa- 
tion— and  there  is  no  doubt  about  this  being  the 
quality  of  its  contents — ought  to  be  widely  read 
and  highly  prized.  It  is  worthy  of  high  com- 
mendation." Religious  Telescope. 

An  Inspiration  and  a  Guide 

"A  work  that  should  be  in  the  hands  of  every 
business  man  who  desires  to  promote  the  wel- 
fare of  his  business.  It  will  prove  both  an  in- 
spiration and  a  guide." 

Christian    Work  and  Evangelist. 

Valuable  Information 

"The  information  in  this  book  is  so  valuable 
that  it  ought  to  have  the  widest  possible  reading. 
We  unhesitatingly  commend  it  to  every  business 
man."  Trojan  Messenger. 

Sane  and  Helpful 

"Like  all  the  Harden  books,  it  contains  a  sane 
and  helpful  philosophy  of  right  conduct." 

Des  Moines  Capital. 


izmo,  cloth,  $1.00  net.     By  mail,  $1.10. 

THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  COMPANY 


Opinions  of 

iHiradr  of  IStglit 


Dr.  Sheldon  Leavitt  says  : 

"  I  wish  to  state  that  I  am  unusually  well  pleased  with 
Dr.  Marden's  '  Miracle  of  Right  Thought.'  It  is  the 
best  work  of  the  author." 

Ralph  Waldo  Trine  says: 

"  This  is  one  of  those  inspiring,  reasonable  and  valuable 
books  that  are  bringing  new  life  and  new  power  to  so 
many  thousands  all  over  our  rountry  and  all  over  the 
world  to-day." 

"You  have  formulated  a  philosophy 
which  must  sooner  or  later  be  universally  accepted. 
Your  book  shows  how  the  right  mental  attitude  helps 
one  in  the  realization  of  every  laudable  ambition,  and 
the  value  of  cultivating  a  bright,  self-reliant  habit  of 
thought.  I  congratulate  you  on  it." 

G.  H.  SANDISON,  Editor,  The  Christian  Herald. 

"It  is  marked  by  sanctified  common  sense; 

it  is  in  line  with  the  advance  thought  of  to-day,  and 
yet  it  is  so  simple  in  statement  that  unlettered  men  and 
untrained  youtns  can  master  its  best  thoughts  and  trans- 
late them  into  their  daily  lives." 

REV.  R.  S.  MACARTHUR,  D.D.,  New  York  City. 

Rev.  F.  E.  Clark,  President  United  Society 

of  Christian  Endeavor,  says  : 

"I  regard  '  The  Miracle  of  Right  Thought'  as  one  of 
Dr.  Marden's  very  best  books,  and  that  is  saying  a  great 
deal  He  has  struck  the  modern  note  of  the  power  of 
mind  over  bodily  conditions  in  a  fresh  and  most  inter- 
esting way,  while  he  has  not  fallen  into  the  mistake  of 
some  New  Thought  writers  of  eliminating  the  personal 
God  from  the  universe.  No  one  can  read  this  book 
sympathetically,  I  believe,  without  being  happier  and 
better." 

izmo,  cloth,  $t-2j  net.     By  mail,  $1.37 

Pocket  Ed.,  leather,       i.jo  net.     By  mail,    1.38 

THOMAS   Y.  CROWELL  &  CO.,  NEW  YORK 


Letters  to  Dr.  Marden  concerning 

(Setting  ©n 


Effective  and  Inspiring 

"  I  think  the  chapters  in  this  book  are  the  most  effec- 
tive and  inspiring  I  have  read.     They  make  one  want 
to  be  something  better.     Had  I  read  them  ten  or  fifteen 
years  ago  I  should  have  been  a  different  person  now." 
H.  J.  CROPLEY,  Victoria,  Australia. 

"  I  have  gained  great  good 

from  reading  the  chapter  '  Emergencies  the  Test  of 
Ability.'  You  have  placed  my  ideas  of  life  and  raised 
my  goals  far  above  what  they  once  were." 

RUPERT  C.  BOWDEN,  Magazine,  Arkansas. 

Of  Value  to  Employees 

"  I  became  so  impressed  with  the  directness  of  your 
article  '  The  Precedent  Breaker '  that  I  shall  ask  each 
one  of  our  employees  to  read  it,  notifying  them  of  its 
appearance  through  our  weekly  bulletin." 

SAMUEL  BRILL,  Head  of  firm  of  Brill  Bros. 

Chapter  reprinted  by  Bell  Telephone  Co. 

"  I  take  pleasure  in  sending  you  two  copies  of  The 
Telephone  News,  in  which  appears  your  splendid  arti- 
cle 'The  Precedent  Breaker.'  We  are  grateful  for 
your  kind  permission  to  send  this  through  the  News 
to  six  thousand  Bell  Telephone  employees." 

GEORGE  G.  STEEL,  Advertising  Manager 
Bell  Telephone  Co.  of  Pennsylvania. 

An  Inspiration  in  Time  of  Need 

"I  wish  to  thank  you  for  the  chapter  on  '  Clear  Grit 
did  It.'  It  has  been  an  inspiration  to  me  in  a  time 
when  I  needed  it  most." 

C.  W.  HALE,  Indianapolis^  Ind. 


i2mo,  cloth,  $'-25  net.     By  mail,  $1.37 

Pocket  Ed.,  leather,      1.50  net.    By  mail,    1.5% 

VHOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &.  co.,  NEW  YORK 


Press  Reviews  of  Dr.  Marden's 

Be  (Boob  to  |£ourself 

"The  author  is  a  wonder, — 

one  of  the  very  best  preachers,  through  the  pen,  of  our 
time."  Zion's  Herald. 

"  Just  such  a  discussion  of  personality 

as  we  all  need.  The  titles  of  the  chapters  are  appetiz- 
ing and  the  advice  and  lessons  taught  are  good.  It 
will  help  many  a  reader  to  understand  himself  better." 

The  Advance. 

"  The  kind  counsel  of  a  new  book 

by  Orison  Swett  Marden,  who  says  there  are  many 
people  who  are  good  to  others  but  not  to  themselves. 
This  is  a  fine  volume  from  every  point  of  view." 

The  Religious  Telescope. 

"  Of  a  thoroughly  inspirational  character, 

these  essays  are  calculated  to  awaken  and  sustain  the 
right  sort  of  ambition  and  evolve  a  manly  type  of  char- 
acter. They  are  surcharged  with  faith,  optimism,  and 
common  sense."  The  Boston  Herald. 

"Dr.  Marden's  friends, 

who  are  to  be  found  in  all  quarters  of  the  globe,  wait 
eagerly  for  such  advice  as  this,  on  how  to  be  happy, 
hearty,  and  healthy."  Seattle  Post-Intelligencer* 


i2t»o,  cloth,  $f-*j  net.    By  mail,  $1.37 

Pocket  Ed.,  leather,      1.50  net.    By  mail,    1.38 

THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &.  CO.,   NEW  YORK 


peace, 


LETTERS  ABOUT 

an 


"  I  cannot  thank  you  enough 

for  '  Peace,  Power  and  Plenty.'  Your  former  book, 
'  Every  man  a  King,'  has  been  iny  '  bedside  book '  for 
many  months  now,  —  the  new  me  is  even  more  of  a 
comfort."— BLANCHE  BATES. 

"  I  have  read  with  great  pleasure, 

Interest  and  profit  your  admirable « Peace,  Power  and 
Plenty.'  To  have  written  ,uch  a  book  is  a  service  to 
the  race."— .CHARLES  EDWARD  RUSSELL. 

Andrew  Carnegie  says 

"I  thank  you  for  'Why  Grow  Old?1  (a  chapter  in 
'  Peace,  Power  and  Plenty »)." 

John  Burroughs  says 

"  I  am  reading  a  chapter  or  two  in  '  Peace,  Power  and 
Plenty'  each  evening.  You  preach  a  sound,  vigorous, 
wholesome  doctrine." 

"The  most  valuable  chapter  for  me  ** 
says  Thomas  Wentworth  TTigginson,  "is  that  on  'Why 
Grow  Old  ? '    I  wish  to  learn  just  that.    I  am  now  85, 
and  have  never  felt  old  yet,  but  I  shall  keep  your 
chapter  at  hand  in  case  that  should  ever  happen  to  me." 

Conan  Doyle  says 
"  I  find  it  very  stimulating  and  interesting." 

**  The  chapter  on  '  Health,  Through  Right  Thinking* 

alone  is  worth  five  hundred  dollars." — SAMUEL  BRILL, 
Head  of  the  firm  of  Brill  Brothers,  New  York. 


izmo,  cloth,  $t-2j  net.    By  mail,  $1.37 

Pocket  Ed.,  leather,      1.30  net.     By  mail,    1.38 

THOMAS   Y.   CROWELL  &.  CO. 

NEW  YORK 


Letters  to  Dr.  Marden  concerning 

JEver\>  flftan  a 


Success  vs.  Failure 

"  One  of  the  mosi  inspiring  books  I  have  ever  read. 
I  should  like  to  purchase  a  thousand  and  distribute 
them,  as  I  believe  the  reading  of  this  book  would  make 
the  difference  between  success  and  failure  in  many  lives." 
CHAS.  E.  SCHMICK,  House  of  Representatives^  Mass. 

Worth  One  Hundred  Dollars 

"  I  would  not  take  one  hundred  dollars  for  your  book, 
'  Every  Man  a  King, '  if  no  other  were  available." 

WILLARD  MERRIAM,  New  York  City. 

Unfailing  Optimism 

"  The  unfailing  note  of  optimism  which  rings  through 
all  your  works  is  distinctly  sounded  here." 

W.  E.  HUNTINGTON,  Pres.,  Boston  University. 

The  Keynote  of  Life 

«" Every  Man  a  King'  strikes  the  keynote  of  life. 
Any  one  of  its  chapters  is  well  worth  the  cost  of  the 
book."  E.  J.  TEAGARDEN,  Danbury,  Conn. 

Simply  Priceless 

"  I  have  just  read  it  with  tremendous  interest,  and  I 
frankly  say  that  I  regard  it  as  simply  priceless.  Its 
value  to  me  is  immeasurable,  and  I  should  be  glad  if  I 
could  put  it  in  the  hands  of  every  intelligent  young 
man  and  woman  in  this  country." 

CHAS.  STOKES  WAYNE,  Chappaqua,  N.  Y. 

Renewed  Ambition 

"I  have  read  and  re-read  it  with  pleasure  and  re- 
newed ambition.  I  shall  ever  keep  it  near  at  hand  as 
a  frequent  reminder  and  an  invaluable  text-book." 

H.  H.  WILLIAMS,  Brockton,  Mass. 


tamo,  cloth,  $t-2J  net.    By  mail,  $1.37 


THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &.  CO..   NEW  YORK 


Letters  to  Dr.  Marden  concerning 

1be  Can  Wbo  £btnfcs 1be  Can 


Will  Do  Amazing  Good 

'•'  I  believe  «  He  Can  Who  Thinks  He  Can, '  compris- 
ing some  of  your  editorials,  which  appear  akin  to  divine 
inspiration  in  words  of  cheer,  hope,  courage  and  success, 
will  do  amazing  good." 

JAMES  PETER,  Independence,  Kas. 

Greatest  Things  Ever  Written 

"Your  editorials  on  the  subjects  of  self-confidence 
and  self-help  are  the  greatest  things  ever  written  along 
that  line."  H.  L.  DUNLAP,  Waynesburg,  Pa. 

Gripping  Power 

u  Presents  the  truth  in  a  remarkably  clear  and  for- 
cible manner,  with  a  gripping  power  back  of  the  writing. 
It  is  beautiful  and  inspiring." 

C.  W.  SMELSER,  Coopertown,  Okla. 

Beginning  of  My  Success 

"  Your  editorials  have  helped  me  more  than  any  other 
reading.  The  beginning  of  my  success  was  when  I 
commenced  to  practise  your  teachings." 

BRUCE  HARTMAN,  Honolulu,  T.  H. 

Wishes  to  Reprint  It 

"  I  have  been  very  much  impressed  by  the  chapter  on 
« New  Thought,  New  Life. '  I  would  like  to  send  a 
copy  of  it  to  two  thousand  of  my  customer;,  giving  due 
credit  of  course."  JOHN  D.  MORRIS,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Full  of  Light  and  Joy 

"  I  have  studied  the  subject  of  New  Thought  for  ten 
years,  but  have  never  seen  anything  so  comprehensive, 
so  full  of  light  and  joy,  as  your  treatment  of  it.  When 
I  think  of  the  good  it  will  do,  and  the  thousands  it  will 
reach,  my  heart  rejoices." 

LOUISE  MARKSCHEFFEL,  Toledo,  O. 


J2tno,  cloth,  $*-25  net.     By  mail,  $1.37 


THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &  CO.,  NEW  YORK 


Letters  to  Dr.  Marden  concerning 

to  tbe  tfront 


What  President  McKinley  Said 
"  It  cannot  but  be  an  inspiration  to  every  boy  or  girl 
who  reads  it,  and  who  is  possessed  of  an  honorable  and 
high  ambition.  Nothing  that  I  have  seen  of  late  is 
more  worthy  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  American 
youth."  WILLIAM  MCK.INLEY. 

An  English  View 

"  I  have  read  '  Pushing  to  the  Front '  with  much 
Interest.  It  would  be  a  great  stimulus  to  any  young 
man  entering  life."  SIR  JOHN  LUBBOCK. 

A  Powerful  Factor 

"  This  book  has  been  a  powerful  factor  in  making  a 
great  change  in  my  life.  I  feel  that  I  have  been  born 
into  a  new  world." 

ROBERT  S.  LIVINGSTON,  DeweyviZle,  Tex. 

The  Helpfulest  Book 

" '  Pushing  to  the  Front '  is  more  of  a  marvel  to  me 
every  day.  I  read  it  almost  daily.  It  is  the  helpfulest 
book  in  the  English  language." 

MYRON  T.  PRITCHARD,  Boston,  Mass. 

A  Practical  Gift 

"  It  has  been  widely  read  by  our  organization  of  som* 
fifteen  hundred  men.  I  have  personally  made  presents 
of  more  than  one  hundred  copies." 

E.  A.  EVANS,  President  Chicago  Portrait  Co. 

Its  Weight  in  Gold 

"  If  every  young  man  could  read  it  carefully  at  the 
beginning  of  his  career  it  would  be  worth  more  to  him 
than  its  weight  in  gold."  R.  T.  ALLEN,  Billings.  Mon. 


i2mo,  cloth,  $t-2j  net.    By  mail, 

Pocket  Ed.,  leather,      1.50  net.    By  mail,    1.38 


THOMAS    Y.   CROWELL   COMPANY 


RETURN     CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 
TO"-^      202  Main  Library 

LOAN  PERIOD  1 
HOME  USE 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

Renewals  and  Recharges  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  the  due  date. 

Books  may  be  Renewed  by  calling     642-3405. 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


mm  NQV  14K8S 


OCT2999 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  BERK 
FORM  NO.  DD6  BERKELEY,  CA  94720 


YB  05899 


U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


€005318413 


